Our goals with this research are to: (1) develop a novel primary care screening tool to identify elder neglect in patients with dementia and a point-of-care technology-driven intervention for caregivers, and (2) conduct a 3-arm randomized clinical trial to determine the impact of both screening itself and screening combined with the intervention compared to usual care.

We are focusing exclusively on developing screening for neglect rather than all types of mistreatment given that neglect is very common in patients with dementia, neglect is associated with the highest mortality and morbidity of all mistreatment types, and specific targets exist for interventions. Notably, combining all types of mistreatment, the approach taken to date in screening tool design, has important disadvantages. It makes screening time-consuming and challenging. Additionally, different mistreatment types are very different phenomena, occur in different groups of older adults under different circumstances, have different impacts on health, and likely require different intervention strategies.

Our long-term goal is to develop a screening tool for neglect in dementia patients that may be integrated into primary care and paired with a scalable intervention that reduces future neglect.