Barriers to managing elder abuse in primary care services: experiences of healthcare providers in Mexico City

The purpose of this study was to analyze the barriers to managing elder abuse from the perspective of primary care health workers in Mexico City. We performed an ethnographic qualitative-descriptive study. Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare providers associated with three health centers located in areas with medium and high levels of poverty. A phenomenological approach was used to identify themes, subthemes and codes. Three main types of barriers were found: 1) institutional framework; 2) professional competency limitations and the dominance of a biomedical vision; and 3) the invisibilization of elder abuse. These barriers, described by healthcare workers, highlight the complexity involved in integrating the treatment of elder abuse into primary care health services. It is necessary to develop public educational and preventive public policies for elder abuse that are coordinated both with support services to treat such cases as well as with programs to strengthen healthcare providers professional competency.