The Elder Abuse Prevention Interventions Program
The Elder Abuse Prevention Interventions Program provides $5.5 million to states and Tribes to test interventions designed to prevent elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The funds support five projects and awards range from $625,000-$1,020,000 for three-year projects. Grantees are developing, testing, and evaluating interventions in partnership with State Adult Protective Services agencies, State Units on Aging, and appropriate justice system entities. The projects are also participating in a national evaluation.
These initiatives help to implement the Elder Justice Act, enacted in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act. The pilots are designed to test community-based elder abuse prevention practices. Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the pilot projects and assessing overall project performance will determine the success of their replications.
Five awards were made to the following:
Department of Health and Social Services (PDF, 131KB)
The Alaska Division of Senior and Disabilities Services through the Adult Protective Services Unit and in partnership with the Anchorage Police Department and other key partners is implementing, testing, and measuring the performance of a new elder abuse and neglect prevention technique to enhance future national prevention efforts. The goal of this project is to determine if the Critical Time Intervention case management model prevents elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
New York State Office for the Aging (PDF, 138KB)
NYSOFA’s project partners include NYS Office of Children and Family Services Bureau of Adult Services, Weill Cornell Medical Center’s New York City Elder Abuse Center, and Lifespan of Greater Rochester, Inc. The project is implemented in two New York State pilot sites: Manhattan and the Finger Lakes region. New York State Office for the Aging proposed an enhanced multi-disciplinary team (E-MDT) with a unique feature of a forensic accountant, to investigate and intervene in cases of financial exploitation of older adults. The goal of the pilot is to develop an intervention that prevents financial exploitation and elder abuse by bringing together entities with resources and skills to form a coordinated enhanced MDT that provides improved and effective systems collaboration and specialized responses, resulting in restored safety and security to older adults.
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (PDF, 170KB)
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the WellMed Charitable Foundation proposed to embed two Adult Protective Services Specialists within WellMed Medical Management, a primary care physician group, to provide technical assistance, communication facilitation, and education supporting increased screening to prevent elder abuse. The pilot targets frail elders and caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. The goal of the proposed intervention is to develop and test clinical screening protocols in a primary care setting to identify risk factors and prevent elder abuse. A validated screening tool is being used with both populations to identify at-risk elders or, in the case of caregivers, those at risk of burnout.
University of Southern California (PDF, 73KB)
The University of Southern California, in partnership with the California Department of Aging, California Department of Social Services, Legal Aid Society of Orange County, and the Orange County Elder Abuse Forensic Center is piloting a new approach to preventing elder abuse among adults with dementia. There are myriad factors in multiple domains associated with abuse, so prevention programs must address many of these factors simultaneously. The goal of the project is to implement a model that mitigates multiple key factors associated with risk for elder abuse and neglect in adults with dementia, develop and implement an assessment tool that generates a risk profile, and develop and implement a toolkit of existing interventions that specifically address the identified risk factors. Finally, the project will also analyze risk profiles and case outcomes to see if common patterns emerge within three domains (adults with dementia, caregivers, and context) and assess the effectiveness of the model reducing the risk factors of abuse.
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (PDF, 89.9KB)
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, in partnership with Adult Protective Services (APS), the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS), and the Houston area justice system is pilot testing an intervention to increase medication adherence in older adults who have chronic health conditions and who neglect themselves. The goal of this project is to reduce adverse outcomes associated with elder self-neglect. The pilot is a tailored health promotion intervention to improve medication adherence among frail older adults who self-neglect, increase active participation of elder self-neglecters in managing their chronic disease medications, reduce their level of social isolation, and implement environmental supports to increase medication adherence.