In general, adult children are often the perpetrators of elder abuse, followed by other family members and spouses. Family members commit elder abuse in nearly 6 out of 10 cases, according to the National Council on Aging (NCOA). Other studies found that family members are the most common perpetrators of almost all types of elder abuse. Learn how to keep an older person you love safe.
If financial abuse of elders is more difficult to detect than child abuse, financial abuse of elders may require a model that is more proactive in detecting and responding to cases of such abuse. Elder abuse is a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, that occurs within any relationship in which there is an expectation of trust, causing harm or distress to an older person. Partly because of the many forms that financial abuse of elders can take, commentators have noted the difficulty of devising a response system that adequately corrects such abuse and deters its further occurrence (Dessin, 2000). For an annotated bibliography of materials addressing the financial exploitation of the elderly by a curator, see Sampson (199).
Finally, the author can prevent the professional from spending time alone with the elderly person (Paris et al. An older person may consider a financial transfer to be a reward to someone for the services provided or the kindness provided, while an outsider may consider the gift not commensurate with the nature of the service or kindness. In addition, the elderly person may feel responsible for the actions of the perpetrator, particularly in the case of a family member (Dessin, 2000). Elder abuse can have serious physical and mental, financial and social health consequences, including, for example, physical injury, premature mortality, depression, cognitive impairment, financial devastation, and nursing home placement.
It has also been observed that little is known about the close ties that naturally develop between older people and their caregivers, particularly when services are provided to older people within their homes, and what leads to financial abuse (Quinn, 2000). At the same time, such a model (and accompanying research) should also pay attention to the potential influence of factors typically associated with models of spousal abuse, such as the impact of power and control on financial abuse, the incorporation by victims of internalized messages that they are culprits of this abuse, victims' fear of retaliation if they disclose their abuse, and the social contexts that may lead an older person to fear disruption of the status quo (Vinton, 199. In addition, children may obtain more sympathy and protection than elders and, therefore, reports of their abuse may be more frequent. Not all family members get along, and when an elderly person needs full-time care for loved ones, it can worsen already strained relationships. A second set of reasons traces the lack of information to the nature of the interaction between the victim and the perpetrator of financial abuse.
In general, the victim must experience some disadvantage as a result of the transaction, but some states also require that the perpetrator gain some advantage from the transaction (Dessin, 2000). Unlike children, older people at one time generally possessed the ability to manage their financial affairs and exercised control over these matters.
