Development of a comprehensive hospital-based elder abuse intervention: an initial systematic scoping review

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Public Health
• Human Rights

Background:

• Elder abuse is a global human rights issue with severe consequences.
• Existing hospital-based interventions often fail to address the comprehensive needs of abused older adults.
• This study addresses the gap in integrated care for elder abuse victims.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically extract and synthesize actionable recommendations for multidisciplinary, intersectoral hospital-based elder abuse interventions.
• To summarize the characteristics and validation methods of existing elder abuse response strategies.

Main Methods:

• A systematic scoping review of grey and scholarly literature was conducted.
• Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts, and full texts for relevant documents.
• Included documents contained recommendations for elder abuse responses applicable to a hospital setting.

Main Results:

• 649 recommendations were extracted from 68 elder abuse responses.
• 149 recommendations were deemed relevant and categorized into 5 themes: initial contact, capacity/consent, interview, care domains (physical/mental/social), and care plan.
• A significant gap exists as only 6 responses were evaluated for effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• The review identified key components for a comprehensive hospital-based elder abuse intervention.
• Further research is needed to formally evaluate the extracted recommendations for evidence-based practice.
• Expert evaluation will guide the development of a robust intervention for abused older adults.