News Release

The current status of elder abuse in the United States

Report addresses the scope of elder abuse, current governmental policies, and next steps in improving response

Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Gerontological Society of America

Less than one cent of every federal dollar spent on victim abuse goes to help the elderly. This despite the fact that older adults make up approximately 12 percent of the population in America. It is estimated that elder abuse and neglect affects 700,000 to 1.2 million older adults each year in the United States.

The current issue of Public Policy and Aging Report addresses the problem of elder abuse, what Americans are doing about it, and what else they can and need to do. The Report outlines the dimensions of the problem, the shortcomings of our responses, and the need to move elder abuse higher on the social policy agenda.

In America today, there is much debate on the extent of the problem of elder abuse. The definition and scope of elder abuse are even in question. Additionally, there is debate about the place and centrality of various types of psychological and financial abuse against older people and how to respond to them.

There are also some profound policy issues centered on understanding who are the perpetrators of elder abuse, the factors that contribute to such behavior and what interventions should be made.

Kathleen Wilber, PhD, and Erica Nielsen of the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California present a cogent overview of the complex issue of elder abuse in their paper: “Elder Abuse: New Approaches to an Age-Old Problem”.

Joanne Otto, MSW, Executive Director of the National Association of Adult Protective Services Administrators, finds that Adult Protective Services programs suffer from a lack of cohesiveness and uniformity. There are no federal statutes regulating the delivery of Adult Protective Services, and there is no federal agency charged with responsibility to collect data and issue reports.

Mary Joy Quinn, RN, MA, of the Civic Center Courthouse in San Francisco and Candace J. Heisler, JD, a retired San Francisco District Attorney, look at civil and criminal responses to elder abuse and neglect. They find that legal remedies and responses are changing in the United Sates due to increased interest and awareness of elder abuse and neglect.

Terry Fulmer, PhD, of New York University, Gregory J. Paveza, MSW, PhD, of the University of South Florida, and Lisa Guadagno, MPA, of the Wagner School of Public Service, call for a refinement of “our understanding of how cases should be triaged in order to save unnecessary lag time in bringing cases to appropriate professionals.”

Laurence G. Branch, PhD, of Duke University School of Medicine argues in his paper on “The Epidemiology of Elder Abuse and Neglect” that “substantial gaps exist in quantifying the incidence and prevalence of elder abuse and neglect in the U.S. Common definitions are badly needed.” He calls for a series of methodological studies to be undertaken to obtain self-reports or proxy reports for each category of abuse.

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The National Policy Summit on Elder Abuse, convened in December 2001, brought together a host of prominent individuals, some of who are mentioned above. More information about the summit or about the question of elder abuse can be obtained from the National Center on Elder Abuse web site at http://www.elderabusecenter.org.

Public Policy and Aging Report is a quarterly publication of the National Academy on Aging Society (http://www.agingsociety.org), a policy institute of The Gerontological Society of America. Yearly subscription is $38.95 ($48.95 overseas). An order form is available on the Academy’s website or call (202) 408-3375.


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