Reflection

Overarching Reflection: Elder Abuse and OT

At the start of this capstone process, I was aware that elder abuse was a problem and more prevalent than most people realize. However, I had no idea the gravity and pervasiveness of the problem. In performing the needs assessment and research portion of this project, I was struck with the inaction and ignorance on the part of healthcare professions, including OT practitioners. This was largely the inspiration behind the title of the course, “Breaking the Silence on Elder Abuse.” Elder abuse is an area where, as a whole profession, we can strive to do better. This CE course, marketed by the American Occupational Therapy Association, and housed on their website, will fill an extremely important gap in resources and it is intended to have a positive impact on the problem. 

The criticality of elder abuse and impact that it has on the entire well-being of the older adult should be enough to inspire action on the part of the OT practitioner. The older adults that are the most at risk are the ones with disability and cognitive impairments. With this fact, coupled with recent research, OT practitioners can expect that 1 in 5 of our older adult patients are experiencing abuse. Not only are we often the healthcare professionals interacting closely and frequently with this population demographic, but we are also the professionals assessing barriers to occupational performance. We are acutely aware of the impact of people’s environments, relationships, client factors, performance patterns and skills and should be able to easily identify whether abuse is present.

With our skillset and frequent work with the older adult population, we are perfectly positioned to identify abuse. If we are providing the best possible care to our clients and believe in holistic treatment, then we should be prioritizing the identification of elder abuse during the evaluation and treatment of our older adult patients. We must take a direct approach to this issue and stop feigning ignorance and making excuses. We must acknowledge and act on our professional responsibility to be informed and advocate for our patient’s well-being and safety. I believe, particularly after the completion of this capstone project, that taking this approach allows us to provide the most excellent care as occupational therapy practitioners. If there was ever a healthcare profession to begin making a difference in this problem, it should be occupational therapy.