Informing Evidence-Based Practice: A Review of Research Analyzing Adult Protective Services Data

Abstract

The mission of Adult Protective Services (APS) is to protect older and vulnerable adults from abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The complexity of APS cases and the potential for life-changing interventions point to the need for research that examines and evaluates APS practices. A literature review identified 50 studies published during a 16-year period that used APS agencies, clients, data, or resources to test hypotheses regarding elder abuse. The analysis revealed promising efforts toward knowledge development about elder mistreatment and self-neglect. This article provides an overview of salient findings, notes the scarcity of studies that analyze the effectiveness of APS, and highlights the need for additional research. Lessons learned are described, and APS practitioners and researchers are urged to work collaboratively to develop key practice-related questions about APS processes and outcomes that can be tested with appropriate research methodologies.

Emerging Innovations, Best Practices, and Evidence-Based Practices in Elder Abuse and Neglect: a Review of Recent Developments in the Field

“…Risk factors for perpetrators of abuse include substance abuse, mental illness, and criminal history (Ernst et al 2013). Caregivers who struggle with substance abuse more commonly commit physical and emotional forms of abuse (Ernst et al 2013). Additionally, caregiver burden has greater association with neglect than physical abuse.…”

“…Ernst and colleagues (2013) found that elder abuse victims are most often non-white and women with lower SES, and have a greater number of impairments in cognition and activities of daily living (ADLs). Risk factors for perpetrators of abuse include substance abuse, mental illness, and criminal history (Ernst et al 2013). Caregivers who struggle with substance abuse more commonly commit physical and emotional forms of abuse (Ernst et al 2013).…”

The feasibility of goal attainment scaling to measure case resolution in elder abuse and neglect adult protective services intervention

“…A major barrier constraining progress in EM intervention research is a lack of tools to measure intervention outcomes (Ernst et al, 2014;Stolee, Hiller, Etkin, & McLeod, 2012). Although EM screening/assessment instruments have been developed to indicate the presence of abuse/neglect (Beach et al, 2017;Gallione et al, 2017), the field lacks tools that measure the extent of case resolution over the course of intervention.…”

“…APS programs respond to over 760,000 EM reports per year (National Adult Protective Services Association [NAPSA], 2012), and evidence would suggest that APS caseloads are rising (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2011). Despite growing demand for APS, EM victims continue to be exposed to interventions that lack evidence of effectiveness (Ernst et al, 2014).…”

Safeguarding practice in England where access to an adult at risk is obstructed by a third party: findings from a survey

“…Studies of prevalence of abuse and neglect have taken place in several countries and are used to evidence the need for political and public commitment to safeguard people at risk and address underlying causation (Pillemer et al 2016). Within this context there are new efforts to obtain data about specific forms of abuse or survivors and about professional interventions (Ernst et al 2013). In England Fyson (2015) has recently been critical of the inadequacies of adult safeguarding data from local authorities, finding that these lead to invalid and unreliable information.…”