Perceived Effectiveness of Elder Abuse Interventions in Psychological Distress and the Design of Culturally Adapted Interventions: A Qualitative Study in the Chinese Community in Chicago

Table 4

Perceived challenges in the design of intervention.

Themes	Subthemes	Representative statements
Advocacy	Advocacy will be helpful if linking to actual actions to stop abuse	“I think advocacy is not going to be useful unless you help seniors to take real actions. You need actual changes to stop abuse, not only advocating for the rights of seniors.”; “Among all the components, I think advocacy is least useful. Advocacy is only knowledge, a type of explanation to tell people what to do. It is too far reached and actual impact is unclear.”
	The root of the issue is to stop abusers	“We should think about the abuser. Why are they abusing the elderly? Maybe the abusers have some problems or stress management issues; we should also talk to them and see how they feel.”
Empowerment	Empowerment will be helpful if linked with counseling	“Empowering seniors is an added value to the intervention. It does not help solve the real problem.”; “Empowerment does not work. If victims were not provided with counseling …(and support), nothing can be resolved. Victims will still feel lonely and frustrated.”
Psychological intervention	The concept may be foreign to community seniors and hence decrease the chance of using this intervention	“Some people don’t even want your help, they would be like, go away, I don’t need it, it’s going to make my life worse for me…that’s what older people might think...Are they going to accept that? If they go to therapy, they may say that they don’t think they have any problems. Older people have that attitude. So how are you going to persuade them to go to therapy and change any types of behaviors?”