Older Adult Maltreatment

Older Adult Maltreatment

Older Adult Maltreatment

Best estimates indicate that 1 to 2 million Americans over the age of 65 years are abused, neglected,

or exploited, most often by caregivers (National Center on Elder Abuse, 2005). Precise numbers are

not available, attributable to differences in definitions of abuse, lack of a comprehensive national

data system, and different state system reporting and data collection. Further, only a small fraction

of abuse comes to the attention of Adult Protective Services (Dong & Simon, 2011). The U.S. aging

population is rapidly increasing with projections for individuals 65 years and older to increase from

40.2 million in 2010 to 54.8 million in 2020 and to 72.1 million in 2030 (Dong & Simon, 2011).

Legislation has been effective in bringing about reform.

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