Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is a general term used to describe certain types of harm to older adults. Other terms commonly used include: "elder mistreatment," "senior abuse," "abuse in later life," "abuse of older adults," "abuse of older women," and "abuse of older men."
One of the more commonly accepted definitions of elder abuse is "a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person."^[1] This definition has been adopted by the World Health Organization from a definition put forward by Action on Elder Abuse in the UK.

TypesAlthough there are common themes of elder abuse across nations, there are also unique manifestations based upon history, culture, economic strength, and societal perceptions of older people within nations themselves. The fundamental common denominator is the use of power and control by one individual to affect the well-being and status of another, older, individual.
There are several types of abuse of older people that are generally recognized as being elder abuse, including:

• Physical : e.g. hitting, punching, slapping, burning, pushing, kicking, restraining, false imprisonment/confinement, or giving excessive or improper medication
• Psychological/Emotional : e.g. shouting, swearing, frightening, or humiliating a person. A common theme is a perpetrator who identifies something that matters to an older person and then uses it to coerce an older person into a particular action. It may take verbal forms such as name-calling, ridiculing , constantly criticizing , accusations, blaming , and general disrespect, or non verbal forms such as ignoring, silence or shunning.
• Financial abuse : also known as financial exploitation. e.g. illegal or unauthorized use of a person’s property, money, pension book or other valuables (including changing the person's will to name the abuser as heir). It may be obtained by deception , coercion , misrepresentation, undue influence, or theft. The term includes fraudulently obtaining or use of a power of attorney. Other forms include deprivation of money or other property, or by eviction from own home
• Scam by strangers : e.g. worthless "sweepstakes" that elderly persons must pay in order to collect winnings, fraudulent investment schemes, predatory lending, and lottery scams.^[5]
• Sexual : e.g. forcing a person to take part in any sexual activity without his or her consent, including forcing them to participate in conversations of a sexual nature against their will; may also include situations where person is no longer able to give consent ( dementia )
• Neglect : e.g. depriving a person of food, heat, clothing or comfort or essential medication and depriving a person of needed services to force certain kinds of actions, financial and otherwise. The deprivation may be intentional (active neglect) or happen out of lack of knowledge or resources (passive neglect).

Psychological/Emotional : e.g. shouting, swearing, frightening, or humiliating a person. A common theme is a perpetrator who identifies something that matters to an older person and then uses it to coerce an older person into a particular action. It may take verbal forms such as name-calling, ridiculing , constantly criticizing , accusations, blaming , and general disrespect, or non verbal forms such as ignoring, silence or shunning.

The majority of abusers are relatives, typically the older adult's spouse/partner or sons and daughters , although the type of abuse differs according to the relationship. In some situations the abuse is "domestic violence grown old," a situation in which the abusive behaviour of a spouse or partner continues into old age.