NCJ Number
144472
Date Published
1992
Length
42 pages
Annotation
Physicians are uniquely positioned to detect, manage, and prevent abuse of elders because they may be the victim's only regular contact outside the family and are qualified to order confirmatory blood tests and x-rays, to recommend hospital admission, or to authorize home health care.
Abstract
These guidelines are designed to sensitize physicians to the occurrence of elder neglect and abuse, present information about the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of elder abuse, describe barriers to proper identification and treatment, outline an approach that can be used to facilitate recognition of elder abuse in clinical settings, identify management and prevention strategies, and discuss relevant ethical and medicolegal considerations. A factual overview of elder mistreatment is followed by discussions of interviewing, diagnosis and clinical findings, assessment, intervention and case management, abuse and neglect in institutions, documentation, risk management, and trends in treatment and prevention.