This article reviews the main results and conclusions of published studies concerning the influence of the knowledge and attitudes of health professionals in detecting and reporting elder abuse. Fifty-seven articles published in English or Spanish between 2000 and 2014 were analysed. The main findings and conclusions are presented around four themes: (1) the influence of definitions used by professionals in the detection and reporting of abuse; (2) the ability of knowledge and attitudes of professionals to act as barriers or facilitators of abuse detection and reporting; (3) the influence of the knowledge and attitudes of professionals in strategies for action taken in response to suspected abuse; and (4) training as a means to improve the competence of professionals to detect and report abuse. Results show the influence of knowledge and attitudes, but testing the theoretical models that integrate the relationship of these variables to other factors that affect decision processes and actions of health professionals is needed. Findings from such tests will facilitate the design of intervention strategies to increase the likelihood that health professionals will detect and report abuse.

No abstract

Objective: To provide information relevant for detecting potential self-neglecting elders in a Spanish population. Method: This study analyzed the records of 269 social services clients. They were classified in three groups: presumed adequate treatment (AT), at increased risk of abuse (RA), and at increased risk of self-neglect (SN). Social service professionals assessed these cases. Results: Elders at SN presented greater problems in terms of their personal hygiene and appearance, their living conditions, and their ability to look after themselves, to attend to their own health, to realistically assess their situation, and to accept help from others. Variables used to classify the participants correctly predicted 91.1% of the AT cases. However, they produced incorrect predictions in the other two groups. Discussion: These results have important implications for detecting self-neglect, but they need to be confirmed with more representative population samples.

No abstract

No abstract