Relation Between Caregivers' Burnout and Psychological and Verbal Abuse for Elderly Living in Geriatric Institutions

Elder abuse related to the unidentified crime that seniors are hesitant to speak about. Aim:
To assess the relation between caregivers' burnout and psychological and verbal abuse for elderly
living in geriatric institutions. Design: A descriptive correlational design was used. Setting: Om
Kalthoumand Huda Talaat Harb geriatric institutions at Helwan District. Sample: Purposive
sample including 60 elderly and 35 caregivers working in the above mentioned settings. Tools:1)
Demographic interviewing sheet about the caregivers and elderly 2) Maslach Burnout Inventory
for the caregivers 3) Psychological and verbal abuse assessment sheet for elderly. Results:
Revealed statistically significant direct correlations concerning working hours/day and years of
experience, and burnout and exhaustion scores(p<0.05). The elderly gender was the only
significant predictor for psychological score. There were no statistically significant correlations
between all caregivers' burnout items and elderly scores related to psychological and verbal
abuse, and among caregivers' scores and each other's(p<0.05). Conclusion: There were direct
positive correlations between caregivers' burnout (exhaustion) and psychological and verbal
abuse for elderly. Recommendations: Training program for care providers and family members
to improve their knowledge about needs and problems of the old age and factors that lead to
elder abuse.