McDermott Shannon
Social Work Program, School of Social Sciences and International Studies, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW, 2052, Australia.
J Elder Abuse Negl. 2008;20(3):231-50. doi: 10.1080/08946560801973077.
Although elder self-neglect is of significant concern to adult protective service (APS) workers in the United States, minimal research has been conducted on this topic in Australia. Using qualitative research methods, this article examines how 24 Australian professionals understand situations of self-neglect. Unlike in the United States, where the term self-neglect is used in a broad and all-encompassing manner, participants in this research differentiated among self-neglect (the neglect of self), squalor (extreme neglect of environment), collecting (the accumulation of certain objects), and hoarding (the inability to throw objects away). It is argued that separating out the various behaviors that are classified under the broad umbrella of neglect can be useful in fostering reflective interventions in these situations.
尽管老年人自我忽视问题在美国引起了成人保护服务（APS）工作者的高度关注，但澳大利亚在这一主题上的研究却很少。本文采用定性研究方法，探讨了24名澳大利亚专业人士如何理解自我忽视的情况。在美国，“自我忽视”一词被广泛而全面地使用，而本研究的参与者则对自我忽视（对自身的忽视）、邋遢（对环境的极端忽视）、收集（某些物品的积累）和囤积（无法丢弃物品）进行了区分。有人认为，区分广义忽视范畴下的各种行为，有助于在这些情况下促进反思性干预。
