Pilot Testing a Brief Elder Abuse and Neglect Screening Tool for Emergency Medical Services: Results from the DETECT Project

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2017-03-14

Authors

Cannell, Brad
Animashaun, Rafiu
Reingle Gonzales, Jennifer
Livingston, Doug
Jetelina, Katelyn

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Abstract

Objective: To pilot test and evaluate the effectiveness of a brief elder abuse and neglect screening tool (DETECT) for Emergency Medical Services. Methods: The DETECT screening tool was pilot tested from September 17th, 2015 to October 27th, 2015 at a large mobile healthcare provider in North Texas. During this testing period, all medics were prompted to complete the DETECT tool when responding to a call for a community-dwelling patient who was 65 years of age or older. If the DETECT tool indicated a suspected cases of elder abuse, medics were instructed to contact APS. . The frequency of change in medic reporting to APS was evaluated, along with the predictive performance of the individual screening items. Results: The DETECT screening tool was successfully pilot tested for more than a month. Following the introduction of the DETECT screening tool, there was a 152% improvement in reporting rates with an increase of 3.6 (p Conclusions: Our study provides support for DETECT as an effective intervention for enhancing medics’ ability to identify and report EA.

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Research Appreciation Day Award Winner - 2017 TECH Fort Worth Innovation Award - Innovative Research with the Greatest Commercial Potential

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