The mission of the Elder Mistreatment Core continues to focus on ensuring that all aging Texans live free of and resilient to elder abuse and self-neglect. This year was especially important to our team because we were joined by Carolyn Pickering, PhD, RN, a national leader in nursing research on elder abuse and neglect.
Pickering’s research focuses on identifying risk factors for caregiver abuse and neglect of older adults. We are very pleased to have her leadership to support advancing the TEAM mission and excellence. With the addition of Pickering, we are now the largest team addressing elder abuse in the country, leading different areas of research and innovation including caregiving, mental health, forensic assessments, screening and response in home-based primary care, social connection intervention, emergency department screening and response, fatality reviews, and financial exploitation.
These efforts have led to many prestigious grant awards. Recognizing the expertise of our team, we have begun strategic planning for the next five years of research, innovation, and forensic program development. These plans include expansion of the forensic assessment program to better support law enforcement agencies across Texas, building elder abuse and self-neglect data warehouses for research and program development, and becoming the first formal training program for elder abuse and self-neglect identification, prevention, and intervention research.
Director
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Jason Burnett, PhD, is an associate professor in the Joan and Stanford Alexander Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at McGovern Medical School and the director of the TEAM Collaboratory. His work includes studying risk factors and designing and evaluating interventions and public health programs to help community-based agencies identify elder mistreatment and self-neglect and create long-term positive outcomes. Burnett’s research is focused on understanding the interplay of social isolation, loneliness, and health outcomes in older adults living with elder mistreatment and self-neglect, and mobilizing health professional students to promote meaningful social connections and integration in this population. He is the chair of the Carmela and Salvatore Bitondo Graduate Fellowship Program in Elder Mistreatment. Burnett also serves on several national advisory boards and research committees for elder mistreatment and self-neglect. |
TEAM Faculty
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Ron Acierno, PhD - Professor, McGovern Medical School |
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Brad Cannell, PhD, MPH - Associate Professor, School of Public Health |
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Leslie E. Clark, BSN, RN-BC - Nurse Coordinator, McGovern Medical School |
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John Halphen, MD, JD - Professor, McGovern Medical School |
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Julia Hiner, PhD - Assistant Professor, McGovern Medical School |
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Charles Maddow, MD - Associate Professor, McGovern Medical School |
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Cristina Murdock, MD - Assistant Professor, McGovern Medical School |
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Melba Hernandez-Tejada, PhD, DHA - Associate Professor, McGovern Medical School |
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Carolyn E. Pickering, PhD, RN - Professor, Cizik School of Nursing School |
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Jordan Broussard - Research Coordinator I, Cizik Nursing School |