REVIEW ARTICLE
Elder Abuse in America
Sabrina Pickens*, Carmel B. Dyer
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 3
Issue: Suppl 2: M3
First Page: 188
Last Page: 193
Publisher ID: MEDJ-3-188
DOI: 10.2174/1874220301603010188
Article History:
Received Date: 17/09/2015Revision Received Date: 7/10/2015
Acceptance Date: 27/10/2015
Electronic publication date: 31/10/2016
Collection year: 2016

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Elder abuse is a serious social and public health issue with estimates of approximately five and a half million annual reports in the U.S. Identifying and treating abused elders is difficult due to unstandardized protocols and identification guidelines as well as a lack of public awareness to the problem. An interdisciplinary approach in collaboration with Adult Protective Services investigation is paramount to the assessment and care for mistreated elders. Educating healthcare professionals, other professions, and the lay public through social media, local news, and community education can increase awareness to this often overlooked problem.