NCJ Number
80132
Date Published
1981
Length
25 pages
Annotation
A systems perspective for service delivery planning for domestic neglect and abuse of the elderly is presented.
Abstract
Etiologies of neglect and abuse of the elderly are presented from the perspectives of various disciplines, and types of professional response to such maltreatment are identified. Then a systems analysis perspective is presented to show how and why the current service delivery organization efforts can and should be developed to meet their common objectives. The proposed response system unites four service areas (aging, domestic violence, mental health, and protective services) into a system for dealing with neglect and abuse of the elderly. The initial objectives of the emerging system should be appropriate for initial system development rather than for routinized program performance. The system's objectives will be to measure the incidence of neglect and abuse of the elderly, to initiate and test alternative means of casefinding, to develop and test alternative kinds of intervention and reporting procedures, and to identify appropriate kinds of case prevention services. A final developmental objective might be to define appropriate routinized objectives for the system and each participating component; however, this objective cannot be realized until the preliminary objectives are met and each component is communicating sufficiently with the others. The system's management, the most important single component during the developmental period, will facilitate activities, initiate coordination and communication, negotiate conflicts between competing units, and evaluate unit performance. Management will also be responsible for implementing activity and component objective modification on the basis of ongoing evaluation. The system's developmental period will eventually culminate in a fluid casefinding-referral-service delivery-feedback flow which is the hallmark of a routinized system. Fourteen references are listed.