Articles Related to Elder Abuse
Detecting and Reporting Four Types of Elder Abuse: How Official Adult Protective Services Reports Obscure Older Adults’ Self-Efficacy
It is widely held that older adults are unlikely to self-report their abusive situation to officials such as adult protective services (APS). The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which older adults self-report or alternatively, disclose to informal sources of support who in turn place official reports. Interviews were conducted with 71 APS caseworkers, 55 of their older clients, and 32 non-abusive persons familiar with the situation. The same person who detected also reported the abuse in only 69% of the cases. While 39.5% of the older victims detected their abuse, only 18.3% also reported the abuse. The remaining older victims disclosed to someone who in turn placed a report. By listening to victim’s voices, it was revealed that at least some older adults exercise considerably more self-efficacy in their abusive situation than official reporting statistics indicate. Implications for research and policy are discussed.