Grants

Our Active Grants:

Primary Care Screening and Intervention for Elder Neglect in Patients with Dementia: An Evidence-Based Approach

Agency: National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Aging (R61 AG07901)

Project Period: 09/2022-08/2027 

Goal(s): To develop a novel primary care screening tool to identify elder neglect in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) and a point-of-care technology-driven intervention for caregivers [R61] to prepare for conducting a NIH Model Stage III 3-arm randomized clinical trial to determine the impact of both screening itself and screening combined with the intervention compared to usual care [R33].

Identifying Patterns of Health Care Utilization among Physical Elder Abuse Victims Using Medicare Data and Legally Adjudicated Cases

Agency: National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Aging (R01 AG060086)

Project Period: 07/2018-04/2025

Goal(s): To use Medicare claims to describe rates and patterns of health care utilization of a well-described cohort of legally adjudicated physical elder abuse cases before and after detection, with a focus on potentially missed opportunities by health professionals to identify abuse, to compare rates and patterns of health care utilization to control groups selected algorithmically from Medicare claims data, and to employ sophisticated machine learning approaches to increase ability to identify patterns suggestive of physical elder abuse exposure.

National Collaboratory to Address Elder Mistreatment

Agency: Health Foundation of Western and Central New York, The John A. Hartford Foundation

Project Period: 01/2019-12/2021

Goal(s): To implement and evaluate the Elder Mistreatment Emergency Department Care Model. The research goals include conducting a structured feasibility trial of the model,

preparing training materials, and developing clinical leaders in preparation for national scaling

Past (Completed) Funding 

Identifying Injury Patterns Diagnostic of Physical Elder Abuse

Agency: National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Aging (K76 AG054866)

Project Period: 09/2016-05/2022

Goal(s): To identify injury patterns, physical findings, and other characteristics associated with elder physical abuse by comparing prospectively enrolled victims in comparison with geriatric patients presenting to the Emergency Department with unintentional falls, to identify laboratory and radiographic results associated with physical elder abuse in comparison with unintentional fall injury patients, and to derive a clinical prediction rule to assist busy health care providers in more effectively identifying physical elder abuse, an under-recognized phenomenon.

The Impact and Efficacy of Prosecutors’ Responses to Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation: Defining and Measuring Evidence of Best Practices

Agency: Elder Justice Foundation

Project Period: 12/2016-07/2019

Goal(s): To comprehensively analyze existing data on the prosecution of crimes committed against older adults from King County, Washington, 2008-2012, organize and convene a meeting of national experts to discuss these issues, and report on the recommendations from this meeting and take next steps guided by these recommendations.   

A Pilot Program for Implementing and Evaluating the Vulnerable Elder Protection Team

Agency: Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation

Project Period: 01/2017-12/2018

Goal(s): To implement at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical Center and evaluate the Vulnerable Elder Protection Team an innovative, first-of-its-kind Emergency Department-based multi-disciplinary intervention available 24/7 to assess, treat, and ensure the safety of elder abuse / neglect victims while also collecting evidence when appropriate and working closely with the authorities

Improving Recognition of Elder Abuse through Analysis of Highly Adjudicated Cases

Agency: National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Aging (Grants for Early Medical/Surgical Specialists' Transition to Aging Research (GEMSSTAR)) (R03 AG048109)

Project Period: 09/2014-05/2016

Goal(s): To comprehensively examine and describe common injury patterns, physical findings, and forensic biomarkers in a series of highly adjudicated cases of physical elder abuse using a mixed methods approach, to compare the results to accidental injuries to identify forensic findings associated with maltreatment, and to develop a clinical decision rule to assist health care providers in identifying this phenomenon.

Identifying Injury Patterns Diagnostic of Physical Elder Abuse

Agency: Dennis W. Jahnigen Career Development Award

Project Period: 09/2014-05/2016

Goal(s): This was a companion career development award to the GEMSSTAR administered by the Geriatrics-for-Specialists Initiative of the American Geriatrics Society. This award allowed me to develop additional expertise in elder abuse intervention, forensics, cutting edge epidemiologic approaches, and qualitative methods.

Practical Tool for Medical Practitioners when Examining an Elder who Might have been Abused

Agency: United States Department of Justice

Project Period: 04/2016-03/2017

Goal(s):To use insights from experts to develop a tool (the Geriatric Injury Documentation Tool (Geri-IDT)) to assist clinicians in appropriately and completely documenting physical findings in injured older adults for potential future forensic investigation of abuse or neglect and to assess the feasibility of incorporating this tool into clinical practice

Developing the Vulnerable Elder Protection Team: An Emergency Department-Based Multi-Disciplinary Intervention to Improve Care for Potential Victims of Elder Abuse and Neglect

Agency: John A. Hartford Foundation Change AGEnts Grant

Project Period: 01/2016-12/2016

Goal(s): To design and develop the Vulnerable Elder Protection Team an innovative, first-of-its-kind Emergency Department-based multi-disciplinary intervention available 24/7 to assess, treat, and ensure the safety of elder abuse / neglect victims while also collecting evidence when appropriate and working closely with the authorities

Resident-to-Resident Aggression in Long-Term Care Facilities

Agency: American Federation for Aging Research Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) Grant

Project Period: 06/2007-09/2007

Goal(s): To use focus groups of nursing home staff members and residents to define and fully characterize the spectrum of resident-to-resident aggressive behaviors in long-term care facilities