VIOLENCE AGAINST ELDERLY PEOPLE

Every year, more than one million older Americans are injured physical ly, debilitated psychologically, or exploited financially by a family member. Elderly men and women, who are from all socioeconomic, ethnic, and religious backgrounds and who have varying functional abilities a re vulnerable to abuse and neglect. Health care professionals need to develop the skills to detect both patients at risk and those actively being abused. Barriers to detection of abuse and neglect are complex a nd include victims' resistance to disclosure due to their own ageist a ttitudes or feelings of shame and guilt; isolation of victims by their abusers; and the health care professional's discomfort with the situa tion and hesitancy to intervene, often as a result of inadequate knowl edge and training in this area. Researchers have identified specific r isk factors for abuse and neglect by family members, including psychop athology among family members, a family history of transgenerational v iolence, the elder's dependency, the elders and the caregivers' isolat ion, the caregivers' stress, and living arrangements. Thorough assessm ent of patients at risk by a multidisciplinary team including a physic ian, a nurse, and a social worker and the team's subsequent developmen t of individualized intervention strategies can have a positive impact on this devastating problem.