What is Elder Abuse?
The abuse of someone 60+ years or a dependent adult. It can include physical and/or emotional abuse, neglect, or financial abuse.
Elder Abuse is more common than you think.
Abuse, including neglect and exploitation, is experienced by about 1 in 10 people aged 60 and older who live at home. From 2002 to 2016, more than 643,000 older adults were treated in the emergency department for nonfatal assaults and over 19,000 homicides occurred.
Examples of Physical Abuse
- Physical assault
- Sexual assault
- Unreasonable physical constraint
- Deprivation of food or water
- Inappropriate use of physical or chemical restraint
Examples of Emotional Abuse
Verbal assaults, threats, and intimidation
Subjection to fear, isolation or emotional stress
Withholding emotional support
Confinement
Examples of Neglect
- Failure to aid with personal hygiene
- Failure to provide clothing and shelter
- Failure to provide medical care
- Failure to protect from health or safety hazards
- Failure to prevent malnutrition or dehydration
- Allowing self-neglect
Financial Abuse
Financial elder abuse is any theft or embezzlement of money or property from an elder. This is a particularly serious form of abuse as it can leave elders unable to provide for their needs. Examples include:
- Stealing money
- Intercepting cash or checks
- Telemarketing fraud
- Identity theft
- Predatory lending
- Home improvement scams
California law requires certain individuals, called mandated reporters, to report suspected instances of elder abuse. Mandated reporters include physicians, nurses and other medical professionals, clergy, and employees of health care facilities.
A mandated reporter is any person who has assumed full or intermittent responsibility for care or custody of an elder or dependent adult, whether or not the person receives compensation, including administrators, supervisors, and any licensed staff of a public or private facility that provides care or services for elder or dependent adults, or any elder or dependent adult care custodian, health practitioner, employee of a financial institution or employee of a county adult protective services agency or local law enforcement agency. Failure to report physical abuse, abandonment, isolation, financial abuse, or neglect of an elder or dependent adult, is a misdemeanor. If the abuse results in death or great bodily injury, and the mandated reporter willfully fails to report then it is punishable by not more than one year in a county jail or by fine or both.
Anyone can make a confidential or anonymous report if they suspect abuse of an elder, or a person with a disability. Call Napa County Adult Protective Services at 707-253-4398 or the 24-hour hotline, 888-619-6913.
