Social Vulnerability Scale for older adults: Validation study

Abstract

The Social Vulnerability Scale (SVS), an informant-report of social vulnerability for older adults, was piloted in a sample of 167 undergraduate students (63 male, 104 female) from the University of Queensland. Participants aged 18 -53 (M ¼ 25.53 years, SD ¼ 7.83 years) completed the SVS by rating a relative or friend aged 50 years (M ¼ 71.65 years, SD ¼ 12.49 years): either someone with memory problems, stroke, dementia, or other neurological condition (n ¼ 85); or a healthy older adult (n ¼ 82). Excellent internal consistency and test -retest reliability were demonstrated, and the SVS effectively differentiated healthy older adults from those with a neurological condition based on proxy ratings of social vulnerability. The SVS is a potentially useful adjunct measure of older adults' capacity to reside independently.

Intelligence involves risk-awareness and intellectual disability involves risk-unawareness: Implications of a theory of common sense

“…The Social Vulnerability Scale (SVS) is a third-party rating instrument developed in Australia (Pinsker, Stone, Pachana, & Greenspan, 2006) which assesses an individual ' s likelihood of behaving gullibly and has thus far proven effective in identifying older people with dementia. An expanded version under development, which taps all three forms of foolish action, is the Everyday Judgment Scale (EJS; Greenspan & Novick-Brown, 2011 …”

Financial Capacity in Older Adults: A Review of Clinical Assessment Approaches and Considerations

“…There is a virtual absence of assessment instruments which specifically target this construct ). An exception is the Social Vulnerability Scale (SVS; Pinsker, Stone, Pachana, & Greenspan, 2006), a recently developed instrument for assessing vulnerability to undue influence. The SVS also targets susceptibility to financial exploitation through consumer fraud.…”

Predictors of financial capacity performance in older adults using the Financial Competence Assessment Inventory

“…Informants completed the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale for the Elderly (IADL-E; Mathuranath et al, 2005), the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE; Jorm, 1994), the delusions, hallucinations, anxiety, and depression questions from the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI; Cummings et al, 1994), and the Social Vulnerability Scale (SVS; Pinsker et al, 2006). The assessment of participants took approximately 90 to 150 minutes to complete; all participants were debriefed regarding the specific aims and expected outcomes of the research.…”

“…Such declines have been shown to predict reduced performance of financial management tasks, for example, in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) (Griffith et al, 2003;Sherod et al, 2009). When assessing financial capacity, informant reports should also be sought, as collateral information can provide useful information to inform clinical judgments of financial capacity (Pinsker et al, 2006;Sherod et al, 2009). Finally, assessment of psychiatric conditions, such as depression and anxiety, is recommended (Moye et al, 2013), as financial capacity may be affected by the cognitive, affective, or behavioral sequelae of such conditions.…”

“…Questions concerning financial capacity often arise from concerned family members, healthcare professionals or, in some cases, the patients themselves. There is real potential for loss of assets due to mismanagement or financial exploitation, or abuse if an individual's financial capacity is impaired (Pinsker et al, 2006;Acierno et al, 2010).…”