Question

Question: Elder abuse is less well understood than other types of violence. Discuss a practice from these Elder Abuse Prevention interventions that you would like to see applied in your work-setting and how you will apply to your work

Appropriate interventions for Prevention of elder abuse are:

Education interventions for caregiver and spread of information

Finding support group for caregiver in order to remove stress: A support program established as

an elder abuse intervention and prevention program, Eliciting Change

in At-Risk Elders, provided community partnerships with law enforcement and program staff of the

Heritage Clinic and Community

Assistance Program for Seniors.

Law enforcement referred individuals who had elder abuse prevention

or intervention needs, and trained

outreach specialists worked with

older adults to identify their needs

and put services in place. Evaluating

these services over a few months’

time (individualized to the older

adult’s needs) resulted in a decrease

in risk factors for elder abuse, and participants made progress in reaching their goals (Mariam et al., 2015).

Money management programs: daily monitoring of elderly finance to avoid exploitation. Intervention trials to prevent exploitation have not been completed,

but daily money management

(DMM) programs have emerged as

a result of professionals in diverse

settings observing their clients having exploitation problems. DMM

programs assist individuals who

have difficulty managing their personal financial affairs, which include

26

preparing checks, making bank deposits, dispensing cash, negotiating

with creditors, maintaining home

payroll for attendants, calculating

federal and state taxes, and providing personal fi nancial assistance.

Legislation,

Respite,

Social support,

Batterer interventions: this intervention programs

are established and implemented

based on different theories, such as

men control their partners, batterer

has errors in thinking, and battering

has multiple causes. Thus, programs

are different and focus on helping

batterers confront their attitudes

about control, learn skills in anger

management, use cognitive therapy,

use couples therapy, or a combination of these approaches. In 88%

of 34 programs offering cognitive behavioral therapy, the re-offense

rates were signifi cantly lower in

treatment groups (U.S. Department

of Justice, 2003). Batterer interventions remain marginally effective

and researchers propose that adding

principles of effective intervention

to batterer intervention programs

could be more effective (Radatz &

Wright, 2016).

Multidisciplinary teams,

Circle of friends: that the concept of elder abuse is

discussed. Specific topics or general

concepts could be discussed, but the

idea is that the group starts talking

and someone who may be vulnerable begins to ask questions. Particularly relevant are internet or e-mail

fraud, such as investment schemes

where e-mails are sent touting investments with high rates of return, or the romance scam where

a stranger pretends to be romantic

and wins the affection of the victim

to gain his/her money.

Individuals who are involved

with a circle of friends can reach

out to those they think need help

by listening to their experiences, being respectful of their decisions, encouraging them to keep track of any problems, and providing them with

information on who can help them.