What is elder abuse—who decides?

Abstract

Professionals and carers reported significantly different views from each other and guidelines about what constituted elder abuse. This may be because abuse remains unacknowledged if people feel there are no better management options, and reporting leads only to punitive action for the carer perhaps coupled with institutionalisation for the person with dementia. Successful guidelines require societal agreement about what constitutes abuse and that prevention leads to better outcomes.

Factors Contributing to Elder Abuse and Neglect in the Informal Caregiving Setting

“…The notion of elder abuse is defined differently by various professionals to fit discipline-specific purposes such as legal, law enforcement, medical or protection requirements (Ayres & Woodtli, 2001:328). The concept of elder abuse is also understood differently by older people and caregivers (Ayalon, 2011:499-520;Hempton et al, 2011:466-472;Selwood et al, 2007Selwood et al, :1009. A widely accepted definition of elder abuse by the International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) (cited by De Donder et al, 2011:303) will be applied in this article.…”

“…It is important to note that the violent behaviour, and not the diagnosis of the cognitive disease, increases the chances of elder abuse (Jayawardena & Liao, 2006:129;Lee & Kolomer, 2005:69;Schiamberg & Gans, 1999:90-91;Von Heydrich, 2009:50). In addition, a vulnerability to elder abuse also exists amongst older people with a memory impairment, which leads to their dependence on the perpetrator (Selwood et al, 2007(Selwood et al, :1009.…”

Abuse of Older Adults Residing in the Community of Nepal

“…Older persons abuse is defined differently by various professionals to fit their purposes [2]. Concept of abuse of older adults is also understood differently by different professional [5][6][7]. World Health Organization [8] defined older persons abuse as "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".…”

237 Elder Abuse Context and Theory in Finland, Ireland, Italy and Romania

“…This is in comparison to similar English and Australian surveys that asked professionals the same questions (Selwood et al, 2007;Hempton et al, 2011). This is probably due to the fact that elder abuse prevention does not form part of staff training in Romania.…”