Self-Neglect in Older Adults

Self-neglect is a global phenomenon and a serious public health issue. It is a poorly defined concept, which leads to challenges in identifying self-neglecting individuals as well as practical challenges in implementing interventions among health professionals, family members, and friends. This book is the first global, evidence-based resource that targets self-neglect and the important evidence-based interventions available to help older people in need. It is a road map for all clinicians and health care providers who come upon the complex and often heartbreaking phenomenon of self-neglect. The book is divided into twenty five chapters across six sections. Section I, Practical and Theoretical Perspectives, begins with a daughter profiling the progression of her mother’s condition over time to self-neglect from personal, social, and environmental perspectives, and describes self-neglect as the person’s inability or unwillingness to provide goods and services necessary to care for life’s needs. Section II, Issues Concerning the Self-Neglecting Individual, presents singular or multiple issues that either lead to or are a consequence of self-neglect such as mental health issues, delirium, hoarding, animal hoarding, farm animals and farmers, environmental neglect, and decision making. Section III, The Service Responds, details the response by health and social care professionals and agencies. Section IV, Research Evidence, profiles research evidence and delineate many lessons for health care professionals. Section V, Assessment and Measurement of Self-Neglect, presents methods of collecting and managing data on neglect and associated factors. The final section, Ethical and Education Issues, outlines the pedagogical demands placed on professional educators by the complex nature of self-neglect, and application of an ethical decision-making tool to a self-neglecting case.