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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