Elder abuse and neglect in Israel: to report or to inform: Community nurses’ perspective on a policy dilemma

In recent years, there has been growing attention in Israel to the social phe-nomena of elder abuse and neglect ( EA&N). Two conceptually different poli-cies have been adopted in Israel: (1) Mandatory reporting, which mandatesprofessionals to report cases of EA&N; (2) Mandatory informing, which man-dates professionals to provide information to victims of EA&N. This re searchexamined how reporting and informing policies are viewed by communitynurses in Israel. Methodologically, this quantitative research was based on aclosed questionnaire answered by 200 community nurses, who work in theIsrael’s largest HMO, Clalit Health Care Services. The findings in dicated thatnurses’ willingness to implement the duty to inform was significantlystronger than their willingness to implement the duty to report. These find-ings support the supposition that community nurses prefer the use of legaltools that emphasize empowerment and focus on the autonomy of older per-sons