What is elder abuse?
Elder abuse is any form of mistreatment that results in harm or loss to an older person. It is generally divided into the following categories: • Physical abuse is physical force that results in bodily injury, pain, or impairment. It includes assault, battery, and inappropriate restraint. • Sexual abuse is non-consensual sexual contact of any kind with an older person. • Domestic violence is an escalating pattern of violence by an intimate partner where the violence is used to exercise power and control. • Psychological abuse is the willful infliction of mental or emotional anguish by threat, humiliation, or other verbal or nonverbal conduct. • Financial abuse is the illegal or improper use of an older person’s funds, property, or resources. • Neglect is the failure of a caregiver to fulfill his or her care giving responsibilities. Self-neglect is failure to provide for one’s own essential needs.
According to the best available estimates, between 1 and 2 million Americans age 65 or older have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care or protection. (Elder Mistreatment: Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation in an Aging America. 2003. Washington, DC: National Research Council Panel to Review Risk and Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect.) Data on elder abuse in domestic settings suggest that 1 in 14 incidents, excluding incidents of self-neglect, come to the attention of authorities. (Pillemer, Karl, and David Finkelhor. 1988. “The Prevalence of Elder Abuse: A Random Sample Survey,” The Gerontologist, 28: 51-57.) Elder abuse is the least recognized form of family violence. (The following information is based on the Illinois Elder Abuse Annual Report 2006) Elder abuse takes many forms, and in most cases victims are subjected to more than one type of mistreatment. In Illinois, 58% of elder abuse reports allege financial exploitation; appr
