Senior Health - Reporting Domestic Elder Abuse

The figures on the graphic were collected by the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) from state adult protective service agencies and state units on aging.¹⁶ From 1986-1996, there was a steady rise in the number of reported cases of domestic elder abuse, from 117,000 to 293,000, an increase of 150%.

In 1987 the American Medical Association defined elder abuse as "an act or omission that results in harm or threatened harm to the health or welfare of an elderly person."¹⁷No doubt elder abuse has been with us as long as we have had an elderly population. Domestic elder abuse can happen when an elderly, once independent family member succumbs to injury, illness, or dementia; when a man feels emasculated by retirement and takes it out on his wife; when an elderly person lives with dysfunctional family members. Since the 1980s elder abuse has gotten more attention, but it is impossible to know the true extent of the problem. Elder abuse may be aggravated by a poor economy, cutbacks in social services, and drug abuse. Because we expect old people to decline, mistreatment that results in impairment or disability is often not recognized by medical personnel.

Efforts by law enforcement personnel to deal with the issue of elder abuse are complicated by the fact that victims are poor witnesses on their own behalf. We can expect the problem of elder abuse to get worse as the number of older Americans increases to 70 million by 2030, more than double the number in 1990, with fewer young people proportionately to take care of them.

In the 1970s the British press brought "granny bashing" out of the closet. States began compiling estimates on cases of suspected elder abuse in the early 1980s after Rep. Claude Pepper's House Select Committee on Aging held hearings and coined the term "elder abuse." Efforts to come up with national data are complicated by the fact that each state has its own laws regarding elder abuse, its own policies for reporting suspected cases (sometimes mandatory, sometimes not), and its own definitions of what constitutes elder abuse. Our next panel shows some results from the first national study.

Sources: National Center on Elder Abuse, Elder Abuse Information Series, www.elderabusecenter.org/. Kim A. Collins, MD; Allan T. Bennett, MD; Randy Hanzlick, MD; and the Autopsy Committee of the College of American Pathologists, "Elder Abuse and Neglect," Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 160 No. 11, June 12, 2000 http://archinte.ama-assn.org/issues/v160n11/ffull/iam90005.html. Data retrieved August 22, 2002.