By Senators Herb Kohl, Bernie Sanders, and Richard Blumenthal

Every day brings new reports of elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation from across America. Isolated older adults are being denied the care they need. They are being neglected and are suffering physical, sexual, and financial abuse—often by the individuals upon whom they rely for care and basic necessities.

By Kathy Greenlee

The World Health Organization has declared that elder abuse is a violation of an older adult’s fundamental rights to be safe and live free from violence. Recent estimates suggest that one in ten older adults experiences physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. Yet only a fraction of this abuse is reported.

By XinQi Dong

By Marie-Therese Connolly, Risa Breckman, Jean Callahan, Mark Lachs, Holly Ramsey-Klawsnik, and Joy Solomon

By Jeannie Jennings Beidler

Research and popular press report alarming instances of familial elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. The House of Representatives Select Committee on Aging found that older adults are at the greatest risk for abuse, and that in more than two-thirds of substantiated cases, the perpetrator is a family member in a caregiving role—usually an adult child (Elder Serve Act of 2009).

By Georgia J. Anetzberger

Stephen J. Bartels and John A. Naslund

By Barbara Spreitzer-Berent