Educating case managers about elder abuse and neglect.

A recent study of clients referred to an intensive case management program, revealed that a substantial number had experienced physical and sexual abuse which was previously undetected because they were not asked about such experiences. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an elder abuse and neglect prevention program in Florida, a state estimated to have over 90,000 maltreated elders. Mean scores on an instrument administered to the 142 participants before and after the program indicated that case managers showed the most improvement among the various occupational groups. The findings point to the continuing need for educational programming, as evidenced not only by pretest scores but by the fact that almost one-fifth of the participants initially failed to even recognize that there was mandatory reporting of elder maltreatment in the state in which they worked.