Detecting and preventing financial abuse of older adults: An examination of decision-making by managers and professionals in health, social care, banking
Funder: RCUK New Dynamics of Ageing cross-council programmeDuration: September 2008 - March 2011
The aim of this study was to examine decision-making by health, social care and banking professionals in relation to the detection and prevention of financial abuse of older adults. Of the many factors that could be used in decision making, only a few appear to persuade professionals that financial abuse is taking place. Likewise, only a handful of factors influence the likelihood of taking action or the actions taken. The decision cues found to exert the greatest influence were the mental capacity of the older person, the nature of the financial problem and, in the case of those in banking, the person in charge of the money (the older person or another person). The characteristics of the decision making professionals appeared to have little influence on the decisions they made. Age, years of experience, gender, etc did not influence certainty of identifying financial abuse or the likelihood they would take action. An analysis of guidelines and policies revealed little comparative evaluation of the efficiency of safeguarding procedures in different authorities and no evidence base underpinning the effectiveness of decision making in cases of suspected financial abuse. Policies used by banks for preventing fraud and financial abuse are highly confidential and could not, therefore, be examined. While the decision cues reported in this study show a resemblance to those listed in advice documents, this study is unique in its focus on real world cases and its placement of the study within the field of decision science.
People
| Name | Telephone | Office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Professor Priscilla Harries Honorary Professor - Health Sciences
E: priscilla.harries@brunel.ac.uk
|
priscilla.harries@brunel.ac.uk |
Outputs
Gilhooly, MM., Dalley, G., Gilhooly, K., Sullivan, MP., Harries, P., Levi, M., et al. (2016) 'Financial Elder Abuse Through the Lens of the Bystander Intervention Model'. Public Policy & Aging Report, 26 (1). pp. 5 - 11. ISSN: 1055-3037 Open Access Link
Harries, PA., Gilhooly, M., GILHOOLY, K. and Davies, M. (2016) 'Enhancing Workforce Capacity in the Detection and Prevention of Elder Financial Abuse'. Public Policy & Aging Report, 26 (1). pp. 30 - 33. ISSN: 1055-3037
Sullivan, MP., Gilhooly, MM., Dalley, G., Gilhooly, KJ., Harries, P., Levi, M., et al. (Accepted) 'Financial Elder Abuse: Detection and prevention through the lens of the bystander intervention model'.
Harries, P., Yang, H., Davies, M., Gilhooly, M., Gilhooly, K. and Thompson, C. (2014) 'Identifying and enhancing risk thresholds in the detection of elder financial abuse: A signal detection analysis of professionals' decision making'. BMC Medical Education, 14 (1). pp. 1044. ISSN: 1472-6920 Open Access Link
Harries, PA. (2014) 'Safeguarding Adults at Risk from Scams'.Safeguarding Adults at Risk from Scams Conference. Brunel University, London. 10 [unpublished]
Harries, PA., Davies, M., Unsworth, C. and Gilhooly, M. (2014) 'Methods of analysis of factorial survey data to identify expert judgement consensus.'.International Symposium on the Factorial survey method of studying Decision Making. Ulster, Northern Island. 10 [unpublished]
Harries, P., Davies, M., Gilhooly, K., Gilhooly, M. and Tomlinson, C. (2014) 'Educating novice practitioners to detect elder financial abuse: A randomised controlled trial'. BMC Medical Education, 14 (1). pp. 21. ISSN: 1472-6920 Open Access Link
Harries, PA., Davies, ML., Gilhooly, KJ., Gilhooly, MLM. and Cairns, D. (2014) 'Detection and prevention of financial abuse against elders'. Journal of Financial Crime, 21 (1). pp. 84 - 99. ISSN: 1359-0790 Open Access Link
Gilhooly MLM., Cairns D., Davies M., Harries PA., Notley E. and Gilhooly KJ. (2013) 'Framing the detection of financial elder abuse as bystander intervention: Decision cues, pathways to detection and barriers to action'. Journal of Adult Protection, 15 (2). pp. 54 - 58.
Gilhooly, ML., Davies, M., Cairns, D., Harries, P. and Gilhooly, K. (2012) 'ELDER FINANCIAL ABUSE: DECISION CUES INFLUENCING CERTAINTY THAT ABUSE IS TAKING PLACE AND LIKELIHOOD OF TAKING ACTION'. GERONTOLOGIST, 52. pp. 38 - 38. ISSN: 0016-9013
Harries, PA. (2012) 'Detecting and preventing financial abuse of vulnerable older customers: free training resources'. Place of publication: CIFAS, UK FRuad Dectection Agency. Available at: http://www.cifas.org.uk/.
Gilhooly, M., Davies, M., Harries, P., Gilhooly, K. and Cairns, D. (2012) 'Detection and prevention of elder financial abuse: Applying the bystander intervention framework to understand the role of social care and health professionals'.British Society of Gerontology Conference. Keele University. 11 [unpublished]
Harries, PA., Davies, M., Gilhooly, K. and Gilhooly, M. (2012) 'An application of professional decision making research in the social care and health sectors: Identifying expert judgement consensus for a web based training aid'.International Conference on Thinking. Birkbeck College and University College London. 5 [unpublished]