Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is any act or lack of appropriate act whose consequences are harm or distress to an elderly person. In the United States, it is estimated that each year 1 million elderly Americans are abused by their relatives, and with the aging of the population worldwide, elder abuse will naturally increase if not prevented. Abused seniors are at higher risk for depression and death compared to nonabused seniors.

There is currently enough evidence to affirm that elder abuse is a worldwide problem, and the various existing studies have found a surprisingly high incidence of it, ranging from 3 to 6 percent of people above 65 years of age being abused annually. That puts elder abuse in the present developmental agenda.

The perpetrators of elderly abuse are generally spouses or adult children, although they can be other family members and even informal or paid caregivers. While some behaviors are clearly abusive, the line that separates abuse from normal behavior may be tenuous. For example, people often cross this line when intending to control daily activities and schedules of their lucid but frail senior relative who could well decide upon his or her activities and maintain autonomy even if dependent on others to perform them. In that sense, caregivers for elderly persons who have chronic medical problems may not realize abusive behaviors or may be isolated enough to lose contact with other people and other caregivers, losing insight of what is normal. The harmful effects of caregiver burden are well studied and there are many options to relieve this burden, from services of care to the patients to services of care to the caregivers.