Elder Abuse and Case Outcome

Throughout the health and human service systems, interest in the outcome of interventions has been gaining momentum. The purpose of this article is to investigate case resolution, a common social service outcome measure, as it is applied to cases of elder abuse. An in-depth assessment and reassessment (at 6 months) of 59 abuse cases revealed that resolved cases were more likely than unresolved cases to be associated with neglect, increased social support to the victim, reduction in stress, reduction in the interdependency of the victim and perpetrator, and change in the living situation of the victim. For victims of psychological, physical, or financial abuse, as well as those victims who are not willing to accept services or change their living arrangements, the analysis suggests that the level of future risk of abuse may be a more appropriate outcome measure than case resolution.