2010 Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 51-57
The aim of the present study was to elucidate factors causing care professionals to experience difficulty responding to cases of elderly abuse. A self-administered postal questionnaire was conducted on social workers, care managers and nursing staff at regional comprehensive support centers and residential care support services in a prefecture regarding their handling of elderly abuse cases. Qualitative analysis was conducted on the descriptive content of 209 responses containing free descriptions of “concern about handling abuse cases”. The factors clarified as causing care professionals to experience dif ficulty responding to cases of elderly abuse were “a nonfunctioning support system” “difficulty in determining abuse” “fragile relationship with the abuser” “lack of confidence in handling the case”, and “the mental burden of intervening in an overwhelming situation”. These factors were found to be correlated. Care professionals staff unable to find a solution suffered from loss of self-confidence and exhaustion. In order to reduce the mental burden on care professionals, the implementation of support systems such as acquisition of coping techniques and systematic cooperation is necessary
