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Javier de la O
Professor Massey/ENC1101
26 July 2014
The Situation on Elder Abuse
Each year hundreds of thousands of older persons are abused, neglected, and exploited.
Many victims are people who are older, frail, and vulnerable and cannot help themselves and
depend on others to meet their basic needs. Abusers of elder adults are both women and men,
and may be family members, friends, or trusted others. Meaning anyone can be an abuser it may
even happen without meaning to. We must always be watchful and vigilant against these
atrocities that occur on a daily basis. There are even different types of abuses within the scale of
elder abuse.
In general, elder abuse is a term referring to any knowing, intentional, or negligent act by
a caregiver or any other person that causes harm or a serious risk of harm to a vulnerable adult.
Legislatures in all 50 states have passed some form of elder abuse prevention laws. Laws and
definitions of terms vary considerably from one state to another, but are broadly defined. Two of
the many abuses are Physical Abuse and Emotional Abuse. Physical abuse is inflicting physical
pain or injury on a senior, some examples can be slapping, bruising, or restraining by physical or
chemical means. Emotional abuse consists of inflicting mental pain, anguish, or distress on an
elder person through verbal or nonverbal acts, some examples can be humiliating, intimidating,
or threatening an elder on a daily occasion.
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Abuses occur far and wide and across all fifty states but there should be an effort to
protect those that are weak and cannot protect themselves. The majority of elder abuse victims
are female, whereas the majority of the perpetrators are male. Overall, adult children are most
often the perpetrators of elder abuse, followed by other family members and spouses.
Unfortunately, institutional abuse of the elderly, examples: hospitals, convalescent homes, and
board-and-care homes, is also becoming a major concern, particularly since more families are
unable to provide appropriate care for the elderly at home. It is becoming a growing epidemic
that most families cannot prevent this because they make low income and cannot care for another
person even their own blood.
Contrary to popular belief, older adults are more likely to suffer abuse at the hands of
their own family members than by a paid caregiver. The mistreatment of elders has gone so far
as to infiltrate ones own family and spread the seed of chaos and abuse to the elders own son or
daughter. This epidemic is largely unknown because most reports of elder abuse come from
homes and not the actual family members. It can be very stressful to take care of ones family
but if you add one more elder or even two it can be maddening. It is understandable to be
stressed but releasing stress on an elder is not the way to go about things.





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Works Cited
Anetzberger, G. J. (2012). An Update on the Nature and Scope of Elder Abuse. Generations, 12-
20.
Dixon, J., Biggs, S., Stevens, M., & Tinker, A. (2013). Journal of Adult Protection. 5-14.
Dong, X., Chen, R., Chang, E. S., & Simon, M. (2013). Elder abuse and psychological well-
being: a systematic review and implications for research and policy--a mini review. 2151-2156.
Lynn M. Tepper, Thomas M. Cassidy. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Aging.
Miller, M. (2012). Ombudsmen on the Front Line: Improving Quality of Care and Preventing
Abuse in Nursing Homes. Generations, 60-63
Naughton, C., Drennan, J., Lyons, I., & Lafferty, A. (2013). The relationship between older
people's awareness of the term elder abuse and actual experiences of elder abuse. 1-10