What is Elderly Abuse?

Unfortunately, as America ages, there are increasing incidents of abuse of older people. That abuse is sometimes physical but is more often financial.

Physical abuse of older people is, like child abuse, typically caused by those closest to the individual. It could be a family member or a caretaker. Like the very young, many older people are unable to protect themselves from attack.

As disturbing as any physical abuse of a vulnerable person can be, financial abuse appears to be more common and harder to detect. We all know of instances where people spend money in ways that from our perspective are neither reasonable nor wise. There may be unexplained withdrawals from the individual’s bank account, for instance made out to “cash”. What was the money for? That’s not always an easy question to answer because the individual who wrote the check or authorized the withdrawal might not have a clear understanding or recollection of what it was for.