Assessing Elder Abuse in the Clinical Setting

Daniel J. Sheridan, PhD, RN, FNE-A, FAAN
Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins University of Nursing
Tel: 410-614-5301
Fax: 410-955-7463
Email: dsheridan@son.jhmi.edu

It is important that Health Care professionals from all settings play an integral role in the response to elder abuse, neglect, self-neglect, and exploitation. Since many older individuals are likely to seek health care services from both in-patient and out-patient facilities, physicians, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, emergency services personnel, dentists, and other practitioners are uniquely positioned to detect indicators of suspected or actual mistreatment. Furthermore, these professionals are often in a position to identify risk factors for mistreatment, and to intervene before a crisis occurs.

This course has been developed specifically for students to learn about some approaches to interventions and outreach in the field of Elder Abuse, by the University of New England, Maine Geriatric Education Center and funded by the Health Resources Services Administration grant number D31HP08845. The course provides a basic introduction to some of the methods and resources available in field of Elder Abuse. We hope this course will prove to be a valuable knowledge to those health professionals who work in some way with older victims of elder mistreatment to ensure that older Americans live with dignity, integrity and independence and without abuse, neglect, and exploitation.