Complementary Multidisciplinary Elder Abuse Service in A Geriatric Clinic

To describe a pilot, innovative intervention project combining the adoption and adaptation for hospital use of a screening instrument designed for use in primary health care settings in Canada (and translated into 6 other languages) and a dialogical narrative therapeutic approach. The development of a complementary multidisciplinary elder abuse service (CMEAS) in a private-public partnership.

Between June 2015 – March 2016 elderly hospitalized in Iasi town, Geriatric Clinic and suspected of being abused had the benefit of a complementary multidisciplinary elder abuse service (CMEAS) after being screened for abuse, neglect or abandonment experiences.

A total of 450 patients admitted to the Geriatric Clinic were invited for the study and 152 raised suspicion of abuse experiences and were screened with EASI. Of these patients, 132 where found positive and were invited to participate in CMEAS.

Such a multidisciplinary service requires the collaboration between the geriatric team (medical service), psychologist, social worker, legal advisor, and psychiatrist, referral of cases to relevant public and private community services and their monitoring after hospital discharge throughout project duration.