Project Summary

Elder abuse and neglect (EA/N) is a public health and safety epidemic with impacts in emergency department utilization, nursing home placement, mortality, and financial losses. Vulnerability has been shown to be highly correlated with EA/N victimization, yet research is lacking on interventions aimed at decreasing vulnerability. The principal investigators of this study are reviewing the impact of a primary prevention strategy for EA/N victimization: the community complex care response team (CCRT) intervention. The CCRT intervention is a collaboration of three community agencies that provide 61 services across the medical care, public health and social and community services and support sectors and is evaluated by:

• examining the impact of coordinated multi-sector service delivery offered by the CCCRT on two outcomes: EA/N and emergency department utilization;
• exploring which institutions are best positioned to perform integrator roles in connecting vulnerable older adults to needed services and supports provided by the CCCRT, and
• identifying implementation and translational issues of data sharing and storage across health and human service sectors.

Principal Investigators

• Carolyn E. Ziminski Pickering, PhD, MSN, BSN, Professor, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio
• Christopher Maxwell, PhD, Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University

Methodology

This study uses a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of coordinated service delivery on emergency department utilization; exploring which institutions are best positioned to perform integrator roles that connect vulnerable older adults to needed services and supports; and identifying data sharing and storage challenges across health and human service sectors.