ELDER MISTREATMENT - LEGAL INTERVENTIONS AND POLICY UNCERTAINTIES

This article descriptively overviews the important and growing contemporary American phenomenon of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older persons in home and institutional settings by their informal and formal caregivers. The article first discusses definitions and forms of elder mistreatment, followed by a summary of risk factors for victim's and mistreaters. The role of health and social service providers in the identification, referral, treatment, reporting, and proof of suspected cases of elder mistreatment is then surveyed. Specific societal interventions based on the state's parens patriae authority to protect the most vulnerable citizens are listed, as are some of the most vexing ethical and public policy questions confronting policy makers and practitioners about society's proper response to the unpleasant reality that older people are sometimes seriously mistreated. The article concludes with a discussion of the researcher's obligation to report elder mistreatment which is observed during the course of the research.