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The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention defines elder abuse as “an intentional act or failure to act that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult” (age 60 or older)

Elder abuse includes physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, sexual abuse, financial exploitation, neglect, and abandonment. Perpetrators include children, other family members, and spouses — as well as staff at nursing homes, assisted living, and other facilities.

≤ Physical abuse means inflicting physical pain or injury upon an older adult.

≤ Sexual abuse means touching, fondling, intercourse, or any other sexual activity with an older adult, when the older adult is unable to understand, unwilling to consent, threatened, or physically forced.

≤ Emotional/psychological abuse means verbal assaults, threats of abuse, harassment, or intimidation.

≤ Confinement means restraining or isolating an older adult, other than for medical reasons.

≤ Passive neglect is a caregiver’s failure to provide an older adult with life’s necessities, including, but not limited to, food, clothing, shelter, or medical care.

≤ Willful deprivation means denying an older adult medication, medical care, shelter, food, a therapeutic device, or other physical assistance, and exposing that person to the risk of physical, mental, or emotional harm — except when the older, competent adult has expressed a desire to go without such care.

≤ Financial exploitation means the misuse or withholding of an older adult’s resources by another.

How many older Americans are abused?

≤ While pre-pandemic sources estimated approximately one in 10 Americans age 60+ have experienced some form of elder abuse,

≤ A more recent study found that 1 in 5 older adults reported elder abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic.3 Another study estimated that only 1 in 24 cases of abuse are reported to authorities.

Who are the abusers of older adults?

≤ Abusers are both women and men, and people of all ages. An analysis of calls to the National Center on Elder Abuse resource line found that family members were the perpetrators in nearly 47% of incidents. Medical (non-family) caregivers were perpetrators in almost 13% of cases, while only 6.7% of callers did not know their abuser.

What makes an older adult vulnerable to abuse?

Social isolation and mental impairment (such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease ) are two factors. Recent studies show that nearly half of those with dementia experienced abuse or neglect. Interpersonal violence also occurs at disproportionately higher rates among adults with disabilities.

What are the warning signs of elder abuse?

≤ Physical abuse, neglect, or mistreatment: Bruises, pressure marks, broken bones, abrasions, burns.

If you suspect elder abuse of any kind, what should you do?

≤ The easiest and most simple answer is simply call the police. Let expert investigators handle it.