ABUSE AND NEGLECT OF THE ELDERLY - A NORDIC PERSPECTIVE REPORT FROM ANORDIC RESEARCH-PROJECT

This article describes how abuse and neglect of the elderly was made a n issue for research in a Nordic perspective. The Council of Nordic Mi nisters funded a cooperation between Nordic researchers on the issue o f abuse of the elderly, based on a Norwegian initiative in 1988. The a im was to establish a base of knowledge in order to recommend social a nd political measures for each country. The researchers were chosen fr om the disciplines of social work, social anthropology, sociology, nur sing sciences and medicine. Interested researchers were hard to find i n Iceland and Denmark. Important results are on a theoretical level th e discussion and perspectives on the definition of ''family'', ''viole nce'' and ''elderly''. On the practical level the results reveal that between 8% and 17% of a random population sample in Denmark, Sweden an d Finland knew about elderly people being abused in their homes. Betwe en 1 and 8% of elderly people living in their homes are being abused b y their close kin, according to either the old people themselves or as reported by home nurses. In one of the Swedish projects 12% of close family members, being responsible for the care of a demented, mostly s pouse or parent, admitted abuse towards the demented person. Swedish h ome nurses described the difficulties in intervening into the abusive families.