Older People's Perspective about Their Participation in Health Care and Social Care Services: A Systematic Review.

Participation is a right and a key pillar of the active aging paradigm. This systematic review aimed to understand how older people's participation is conceptualized and to detail results regarding older people's perspective about their participation in the context of social and health care services. Twenty-one articles published between 1996 and 2015 were analyzed. The main findings suggested that diverse terminology is used to conceptualize older people's participation; however, all shared a vision of respecting a citizen's autonomy. Older people tend to have a paternalistic perspective although most seek more information and discussion on treatment options. Positive relations with providers enabled negotiation to address individual aspirations, though services tended to be pre-formatted suggesting low levels of adjustment to individual needs and aspirations. Thus, older people and those working with them need training in order to enable participation. In addition, services need to be more flexible to allow users to participate.

Detection scales for the risk of domestic abuse and self-negligent behavior in elderly persons (EDMA).

This article presents the results of a study carried out to determine the psychometric properties of an instrument designed for use by social services professionals to detect domestic abuse and self-negligent behavior in elderly persons. After giving a description of the features of the instrument and the design of the study, the results obtained, in terms of the reliability and validity of the instrument, are shown. Finally, the authors compare their instrument and its test results with other established instruments and indicate the limits of their study.

Academic integrity policies against assessment fraud in postgraduate studies: An analysis of the situation in Spanish universities.

We aimed to analyse the strategies and policies of academic integrity in the face of assessment fraud in postgraduate studies in Spain. To this end, we examined the three strategies most commonly used by higher education institutions to address and prevent dishonest behaviour among students: (1) the use of technological mechanisms to detect plagiarism and identity control on assessment tests; (2) regulatory devices and resources (academic regulations and codes of conduct); and (3) training and awareness-raising activities. We scrutinised the results by means of a questionnaire administered to 102 academic heads of postgraduate studies at 42 Spanish universities. We found that almost all universities have plagiarism detection tools, the majority have academic regulations or specific codes of conduct for postgraduate students that address the issue of fraud or dishonesty. It was also found that specific training programmes on academic and research integrity for PhD students are more frequent than those for master's students, and the least used strategies to deal with dishonest student behaviour are the use of awareness-raising mechanisms and the use of an identity control system for online assessable activities. Moreover, there are some significant differences in the outcomes between public and private universities. Our findings highlight the need for Spanish universities to address the development of a clear academic integrity policy.

Detecting Self-Neglect: A Comparative Study of Indicators and Risk Factors in a Spanish Population.

Objective: To provide information relevant for detecting potential self-neglecting elders in a Spanish population. Method: This study analyzed the records of 269 social services clients. They were classified in three groups: presumed adequate treatment (AT), at increased risk of abuse (RA), and at increased risk of self-neglect (SN). Social service professionals assessed these cases. Results: Elders at SN presented greater problems in terms of their personal hygiene and appearance, their living conditions, and their ability to look after themselves, to attend to their own health, to realistically assess their situation, and to accept help from others. Variables used to classify the participants correctly predicted 91.1% of the AT cases. However, they produced incorrect predictions in the other two groups. Discussion: These results have important implications for detecting self-neglect, but they need to be confirmed with more representative population samples.

Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Adaptation of the Indicators of Abuse (IOA) Screen.

The objectives of this study were to replicate the analyses conducted by the creators of the Indicators of Abuse (IOA) Screen with a Spanish sample group and compare the results, to present new validity evidences, to analyze which items were more relevant in the detection of situations of risk of abuse, and to establish a cut-off point to interpret the obtained scores. The IOA was used by 46 professionals from social services teams who assessed the situation of 231 elderly individuals and their main caregivers. The obtained results advocated towards unidimensionality of the scale. It showed a high level of internal consistency (α = .94). The Confidence Interval of 99% for the alpha coefficient was between .92 and .95. The ordinal alpha coefficient reached the value of .98. The total score of the scale showed adequate temporal stability (r = .91; p ≤ .001; N = 163). Statistically significant differences (t-test) in the mean scores of most of the items were found between cases of adequate treatment and cases of risk of abuse. The scale classified correctly 93% of all cases. The best balance between sensitivity and specificity was found at the cut-off point given by score 16 (Sensitivity = 0.94, Specificity = 0.85). The results appear to confirm the validity evidence of the instrument when used with a Spanish population. However, it is necessary to conduct further research and confirm the results with wider, more representative sample groups.

Un análisis sobre intervenciones eficaces en la protección del menor / An Analysis of Child Welfare Effective Interventions

Resumen El propósito de este artículo es contribuir a la discusión del tipo de intervenciones que podrían ser más eficaces para la protección de los menores. Para lograrlo, se analizan las características de algunos de los programas mejor valorados en las clasificaciones de las intervenciones basadas en la evidencia: los tipos de intervenciones realizadas, sus formatos de ejecución y su efectividad. En la discusión, se plantean tres posibles factores que podrían estar relacionados con la eficacia de estos programas: la interacción entre la utilización de técnicas basadas en la evidencia y la adaptación de la intervención a las necesidades de cada familia, los efectos sobre la motivación y las expectativas de autoeficacia de los participantes y las características de los profesionales. Palabra clave: protección al menor; intervenciones basadas en la evidencia; evaluación de la eficacia.

Abstract The purpose of this article is to contribute to the discussion of the kind of interventions that could be most effective for child protection. To achieve this, the characteristics of some of the most highly valued programmes for evidence-based practice are analysed: the type of intervention used, their implementation formats and their effectiveness results. In the discussion, three possible factors that could be related to the effectiveness of these programmes are considered: the interaction between the use of evidence-based techniques and adaptation of the intervention to the needs of each family, the effects on motivation and the expectations of self-efficacy by the participants and the characteristics of the practitioners.