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Background Improving accuracy of identification of COVID-19-related deaths is essential to public health surveillance and research. The verbal autopsy, an established strategy involving an interview with a decedent’s caregiver or witness using a semi-structured questionnaire, may improve accurate counting of COVID-19-related deaths. Objective To develop and pilot-test the Verbal Autopsy Instrument for COVID-19 (VAIC) and a death adjudication protocol using it. Methods/Key Results We used a multi-step process to design the VAIC and a protocol for its use. We developed a preliminary version of a verbal autopsy instrument specifically for COVID. We then pilot-tested this instrument by interviewing respondents about the deaths of 15 adults aged ≥65 during the initial COVID-19 surge in New York City. We modified it after the first 5 interviews. We then reviewed the VAIC and clinical information for the 15 deaths and developed a death adjudication process/algorithm to determine whether the underlying cause of death was definitely (40% of these pilot cases), probably (33%), possibly (13%), or unlikely/definitely not (13%) COVID-19-related. We noted differences between the adjudicated cause of death and a death certificate. Conclusions The VAIC and a death adjudication protocol using it may improve accuracy in identifying COVID-19-related deaths. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11606-021-06842-1.

Study objective Elder abuse is common and has serious health consequences but is underrecognized by health care providers. An important reason for this is difficulty in distinguishing between elder abuse and unintentional trauma. Our goal was to identify injury patterns associated with physical elder abuse in comparison with those of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with unintentional falls. Methods We partnered with a large, urban district attorney’s office and examined medical, police, and legal records from successfully prosecuted cases of physical abuse of victims aged 60 years or older from 2001 to 2014. Results We prospectively enrolled patients who presented to a large, urban, academic ED after an unintentional fall. We matched 78 cases of elder abuse with visible injuries to 78 unintentional falls. Physical abuse victims were significantly more likely than unintentional fallers to have bruising (78% versus 54%) and injuries on the maxillofacial, dental, and neck area (67% versus 28%). Abuse victims were less likely to have fractures (8% versus 22%) or lower extremity injuries (9% versus 41%). Abuse victims were more likely to have maxillofacial, dental, or neck injuries combined with no upper and lower extremity injuries (50% versus 8%). Examining precise injury locations yielded additional differences, with physical elder abuse victims more likely to have injuries to the left cheek or zygoma (22% versus 3%) or on the neck (15% versus 0%) or ear (6% versus 0%). Conclusion Specific, clinically identifiable differences may exist between unintentional injuries and those from physical elder abuse. This includes specific injury patterns that infrequently occur unintentionally.

Elder mistreatment is common and has serious consequences. The emergency department (ED) may provide a unique opportunity to detect this mistreatment, with social workers often asked to take the lead in assessment and intervention. Despite this, social workers may feel ill-equipped to conduct assessments for potential mistreatment, due in part to a lack of education and training. As a result, the authors created the Emergency Department Elder Mistreatment Assessment Tool for Social Workers (ED-EMATS) using a multiphase, modified Delphi technique with a national group of experts. This tool consists of both an initial and comprehensive component, with 11 and 17 items, respectively. To our knowledge, this represents the first elder abuse assessment tool for social workers designed specifically for use in the ED. The hope is that the ED-EMATS will increase the confidence of ED social workers in assessing for elder mistreatment and help ensure standardization between professionals.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Little is known about elder abuse and neglect in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community; however, this population faces a greater risk of abuse and likely experiences abuse differently and needs different resources. We conducted focus groups to investigate LGBT older adults' perspectives on and experience with elder mistreatment. METHODS We conducted three focus groups with 26 participants recruited from senior centers dedicated to LGBT older adults. A semistructured questionnaire was developed, and focus groups were audio recorded, professionally transcribed, and analyzed using grounded theory. RESULTS Key themes that emerged included: definitions and etiologies of abuse, intersectionality of discrimination from multiple minority identities, reluctance to report, and suggestions for improving outreach. Participants defined elder abuse in multiple ways, including abuse from systems and by law enforcement and medical providers. Commonly reported etiologies included: social isolation due to discrimination, internalization of stigma, intersection of discrimination from multiple minority identities, and an abuser's desire for power and control. Participants were somewhat hesitant to report to police; however, most felt strongly that they would not report abuse to their medical provider. Most reported that they would feel compelled to report if they knew someone was being abused; however, they did not know who to report to. Strategies participants suggested to improve outreach included: increasing awareness about available resources and researchers engaging with the LGBT community directly. CONCLUSION LGBT older adults conceptualize elder abuse differently and have different experiences with police and medical providers. Improved outreach to this potentially vulnerable population is critical to ensuring their safety. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:2338-2345, 2019.

Health care providers may play an important role in detection of elder mistreatment, which is common but underrecognized. We used the Health Care Cost Institute insurance claims database to describe elder mistreatment diagnosis among Medicare Advantage (MA) and private insurance patients in the United States from 2011 to 2017. We used International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding to identify cases, examining the impact of transition from ICD-9 (Ninth Revision) to ICD-10 (Tenth Revision), which occurred in October 2015 and added 14 new codes for “suspected” mistreatment. 8,127 patients (0.051% of all aged ≥ 65), including 6,304 with MA (0.058%) and 1,823 with private insurance (0.026%) received elder mistreatment diagnosis. Transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 was associated with a small increase in diagnosis rate, with “suspected” codes used in 45.3% of ICD-10 versus 9.7% of ICD-9 cases. Overall rates remained low. Rates, settings, and types of diagnosis differed between MA and private insurance patients.

Elder mistreatment is complex, with cases typically requiring integrated responses from social services, medicine, civil law, and criminal justice. Only limited research exists describing elder mistreatment prosecution and its impact. Researchers have not yet examined administrative prosecutorial data to explore mistreatment response, and no standardized analytic approach exists. We developed a rigorous, systematic methodologic approach to identify elder mistreatment cases in prosecutorial data from cases of crimes against victims aged ≥60. To do so, we operationalized elements of the accepted definition of elder mistreatment, including expectation of trust and vulnerability. We also designed an approach to categorize elder mistreatment cases, using the types of charges filed, into: financial exploitation, physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal/emotional/psychological abuse, and neglect. This standardized methodological approach to identify and categorize elder mistreatment cases in prosecution data is an important preliminary step in analyzing this potentially untapped source of useful information about mistreatment response.

Background Little literature exists classifying and comprehensively describing intentional and unintentional acute injuries, which would be valuable for research and practice. In preparation for a study of injury patterns in elder abuse, our goal was to develop a comprehensive taxonomy of relevant types and characteristics of visible acute injuries and evaluate it in geriatric patients. Methods We conducted an exhaustive review of the medical and forensic literature focusing on injury types, descriptions, patterns and analyses. We then prepared iteratively, through consensus with a multidisciplinary, national panel of elder abuse experts, a comprehensive classification system to describe these injuries. Results We designed a three-step process to fully describe and classify visible acute injuries: (1) determining the type of injury, (2) assigning values to each of the characteristics common to all geriatric injuries and (3) assigning values to additional characteristics relevant for specific injuries. We identified nine unique types of visible injury and seven characteristics critical to describe all these injuries, including body region(s) and precise anatomic location(s). For each injury type, we identified two to seven additional critical characteristics, such as size, shape and cleanliness. We pilot tested it on 323 injuries on 83 physical elder abuse victims and 45 unintentional fall victims from our ongoing research to ensure that it would allow for the complete and accurate description of the full spectrum of visible injuries encountered and made modifications and refinements based on this experience. We then used the classification system to evaluate 947 injuries on 80 physical elder abuse victims and 195 unintentional fall victims to assess its practical utility. Conclusions Our comprehensive injury taxonomy systematically integrates and expands on existing forensic and clinical research. This new classification system may help standardise description of acute injuries and patterns among clinicians and researchers.

BACKGROUND: Elder abuse is under-recognized by emergency department (ED) providers, largely due to challenges distinguishing between abuse and accidental trauma. OBJECTIVE: To describe patterns and circumstances surrounding elder abuse-related and potentially abuse-related injuries in ED patients independently known to be physical elder abuse victims. METHODS: ED utilization of community-dwelling victims of physical elder abuse in New Haven, CT from 1981-1994 was analyzed previously. Cases were identified using Elderly Protective Services data matched to ED records. Sixty-six ED visits were judged to have high probability of being related to elder abuse and 244 were of indeterminate probability. We re-examined these visits to assess whether they occurred due to injury. We identified and analyzed in detail 31 injury-associated ED visits from 26 patients with high probability of being related to elder abuse and 108 visits from 57 patients with intermediate probability and accidental injury. RESULTS: Abuse-related injuries were most common on upper extremities (45% of visits) and lower extremities (32%), with injuries on head or neck noted in 13 visits (42%). Bruising was observed in 39% of visits, most commonly on upper extremities. Forty-two percent of purportedly accidental injuries had suspicious characteristics, with the most common suspicious circumstance being injury occurring more than 1 day prior to presentation, and the most common suspicious injury pattern being maxillofacial injuries. CONCLUSION: Victims of physical elder abuse commonly have injuries on the upper extremities, head, and neck. Suspicious circumstances and injury patterns may be identified and are commonly present when victims of physical elder abuse present with purportedly accidental injuries. Language: en

An Emergency Department visit provides an opportunity to detect elder mistreatment, but medical providers rarely know appropriate next steps after identifying it. The Vulnerable Elder Protection Team (VEPT) is a first-of-its kind ED-based, multi-disciplinary team created to assist ED providers in optimizing assessment and care for potential victims. This team includes a full-time social worker whose expertise has had a significant impact. During the first nine months, the VEPT social worker participated in the care of 64 patients, of which 39 were determined to be victims of mistreatment. Among mistreatment victims, 21% were discharged to an elder abuse shelter, 36% were discharged with a change in their housing situation, and 23% were discharged with additional home services. She led coordination with Adult Protective Services and other community agencies, transfer to elder abuse shelters, work with police agencies, reporting facilities for health department investigation, and collaboration with hospital geriatricians and ethics.

BackgroundAn ED visit provides a unique opportunity to identify elder abuse, which is common and has serious medical consequences. Despite this, emergency providers rarely recognise or report it. We have begun the design of an ED-based multidisciplinary consultation service to improve identification and provide comprehensive medical and forensic assessment and treatment for potential victims.MethodsWe qualitatively explored provider perspectives to inform intervention development. We conducted 15 semistructured focus groups with 101 providers, including emergency physicians, social workers, nurses, technologists, security, radiologists and psychiatrists at a large, urban academic medical centre. Focus groups were transcribed, and data were analysed to identify themes.ResultsProviders reported not routinely assessing for elder mistreatment and believed that they commonly missed it. They reported 10 reasons for this, including lack of knowledge or training, no time to conduct an evaluation, concern that identifying elder abuse would lead to additional work, and absence of a standardised response. Providers believed an ED-based consultation service would be frequently used and would increase identification, improve care and help ensure safety. They made 21 recommendations for a multidisciplinary team, including the importance of 24/7 availability, the value of a positive attitude in a consulting service and the importance of feedback to referring ED providers. Participants also highlighted that geriatric nurse practitioners may have ideal clinical and personal care training to contribute to the team.ConclusionsAn ED-based multidisciplinary consultation service has potential to impact care for elder abuse victims. Insights from providers will inform intervention development.

An emergency department (ED) visit provides an opportunity to identify elder abuse, but providers rarely recognize or report. We have begun designing a multi-disciplinary ED-based consultation service to improve identification, medical and forensic assessment, and treatment for potential victims. We qualitatively explored provider perspectives to inform intervention development. We conducted 16 semi-structured focus groups at a large, urban hospital with providers, including social workers, emergency physicians, geriatricians, and nurses. Focus groups were transcribed, and data was analyzed to identify themes. Providers believed an ED-based consultation service would be frequently utilized and would increase identification, improve care, and help ensure safety. Participants identified challenges including determining capacity for potential victims requesting discharge. They emphasized the value of coordinating with in-patient and out-patient medical and service providers. Providers suggested geriatric nurse practitioners may have ideal clinical and personal care training to contribute and highlighted the importance of social workers in care coordination.

Problem Definition Hospitals have an opportunity to improve the quality of care provided to a particularly vulnerable population: victims of elder mistreatment. Despite this, no programs to prevent or stop elder abuse in the acute care hospital have been reported. An innovative, multidisciplinary emergency department (ED)–based intervention for elder abuse victims, the Vulnerable Elder Protection Team (VEPT), was developed at NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center (New York City). Approach The VEPT is a consultation service available 24 hours a day/7 days a week to improve identification, comprehensive assessment, and treatment for potential victims of elder abuse or neglect. All ED providers have been trained on how to recognize signs of elder mistreatment. Any provider can activate the VEPT via a single page/telephone call, which triggers the VEPT's often time-consuming, complex assessment of the potential mistreatment victim. First, the ED social worker on duty performs the initial bedside assessment and separately interviews the potential perpetrator and/or caregiver. He or she then contacts the on-call VEPT medical provider to discuss next steps and other team members' potential involvement. For patients admitted to the hospital, the VEPT connects with the inpatient social workers and medical team to ensure appropriate follow-up and care planning. Next Steps/Planned Evaluation The VEPT program was launched in April 2017 after comprehensive training. Its impact will be measured by tracking the short-term and long-term mistreatment-related outcomes, as well as medical, mental health, functional, psychosocial, and legal outcomes of the vulnerable ED patients for whom the team provides care.

Elder abuse is underrecognized, and identification of subtle cases requires a high index of suspicion among all health care providers. Because many geriatric injury victims undergo radiographic imaging, diagnostic radiologists may be well positioned to identify injury patterns suggestive of abuse. Little is known about radiologists' experience with elder abuse. Our goal was to describe knowledge, attitudes, training, and practice experience in elder abuse detection among diagnostic radiologists.We conducted 19 interviews with diagnostic radiologists at a large urban academic medical center using a semistructured format. Data from these sessions were coded and analyzed to identify themes.Only two radiologists reported any formal or informal training in elder abuse detection. All subjects believed they had missed cases of elder abuse. Even experienced radiologists reported never having received a request from a referring physician to assess images for evidence suggestive of elder abuse. All subjects reported a desire for additional elder abuse training. Also, subjects identified radiographic findings or patterns potentially suggestive of elder abuse, including high-energy injuries such as upper rib fractures, injuries in multiple stages of healing, and injuries inconsistent with reported mechanism.Radiologists are uniquely positioned to identify elder abuse. Though training in detection is currently lacking, providers expressed a desire for increased knowledge. In addition, radiologists were able to identify radiographic findings suggestive of elder abuse. On the basis of these findings, we plan to conduct additional studies to define pathognomonic injury patterns and to explore how to empower radiologists to incorporate detection into their practice.

Elder abuse is a common phenomenon with potentially devastating consequences for older adults. Although researchers have begun to identify predisposing risk factors for elder abuse victims and abusers, little is known about the acute precipitants that lead to escalation to physical violence. We analyzed legal records from highly adjudicated cases to describe these acute precipitants for physical elder abuse. In collaboration with a large, urban district attorney’s office, we qualitatively evaluated legal records from 87 successfully prosecuted physical elder abuse cases from 2003 to 2015. We transcribed and analyzed narratives of the events surrounding physical abuse within victim statements, police reports, and prosecutor records. We identified major themes using content analysis. We identified 10 categories of acute precipitants that commonly triggered physical elder abuse, including victim attempting to prevent the abuser from entering or demanding that he or she leave, victim threatening or attempting to leave/escape, threat or perception that the victim would involve the authorities, conflict about a romantic relationship, presence during/intervention in ongoing family violence, issues in multi-generational child rearing, conflict about the abuser’s substance abuse, confrontation about financial exploitation, dispute over theft/destruction of property, and disputes over minor household issues. Common acute precipitants of physical elder abuse may be identified. Improved understanding of these acute precipitants for escalation to physical violence and their contribution to elder abuse may assist in the development of prevention and management strategies.

The expanding number of Americans living with chronic illness necessitates educating future physicians about chronic illness care. Weill Cornell Medical College's Chronic Illness Care in the Home Setting Program (CIC-HSP), a mandatory part of the primary care clerkship, exposes medical students to persons with chronic illness via a half day of house calls with a geriatrics team. The investigators sought to qualitatively assess the effect of the CIC-HSP on medical students and recent medical graduates. Fifty-two prospective participants were approached, and 50 (96%) with varying training levels and time since completing the program were interviewed. Most respondents (63%) found that the home visits taught them important approaches to caring for the chronically ill, such as individualizing care to meet patients' individual needs and improving quality of life as a goal of care. Students remarked that the experience enhanced their empathy (18%) and sensitivity (20%) toward chronically ill patients and increased their appreciation for chronic illness care (35%). Many participants reported that patients were more empowered in the home (55%) and perceived greater rapport and warmth between the doctor and patient (57%) in the home (vs office) setting. The vast majority of recent medical graduates (84%) related that this educational exposure continued to positively influence their approach to patient care. A home visit experience with a geriatrics team can help foster medical students' understanding of the psychosocial and medical aspects of chronic illness, teach relevant approaches to patient care, and improve students' attitudes toward caring for the chronically ill.

Purpose Emergency department assessment represents a critical but often missed opportunity to identify elder abuse, which is common and has serious consequences. Among emergency care providers, diagnostic radiologists are optimally positioned to raise suspicion for mistreatment when reviewing imaging of geriatric injury victims. However, little literature exists describing relevant injury patterns, and most radiologists currently receive neither formal nor informal training in elder abuse identification. Methods We present 2 cases to begin characterisation of the radiographic findings in elder abuse. Results Findings from these cases demonstrate similarities to suspicious findings in child abuse including high-energy fractures that are inconsistent with reported mechanisms and the coexistence of acute and chronic injuries. Specific injuries uncommon to accidental injury are also noted, including a distal ulnar diaphyseal fracture. Conclusions We hope to raise awareness of elder abuse among diagnostic radiologists to encourage future large-scale research, increased focus on chronic osseous findings, and the addition of elder abuse to differential diagnoses.