preview

Elder Abuse As Defined By The Center For Disease Control And Prevention

Better Essays

Elder abuse, as defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is “any abuse and neglect of persons age 60 and older by a caregiver or another person in a relationship involving an expectation of trust” (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). These types of abuse can be defined as any physical, sexual, psychological/emotional harm, neglect, abandonment, and financial abuse that is done to any person(s) over the age of 60 who is being taken care of by nursing staff or fellow family members. There are many signs that clarkprosecutor.org emphasizes that should be watched for. Some of these include: discrepancies between standard of living versus financial assets, malnourishment and inadequate physical care, physical injuries, withdrawn, medical needs not attended to, and sudden unexplained changes in the victim’s living arrangements. A lot of abuse goes unnoticed because victims are usually unwilling to describe the attacks, but once they are reported they are frequently not believed (clarkprosecutor.org, 2014). According to the National Center on Elder Abuse and Bureau of Justice Statistics, there is about 2,150,000 cases of elder abuse that is reported annually. These include: 58.5% of neglect, 15.7% of physical abuse, 12.3% of financial exploitations, 7.3% emotional abuse, 0.04% sexual abuse and 5.1% of all other types of abuse (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2005-2009) When it comes to all these different kinds of abuse, it is stated that roughly 24% of

Get Access