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Abuse underreported in many states
USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), April, 2004
Although all states have laws and services in place to detect domestic elder abuse, only about one in five actual cases is reported and sub stantiated. How cases are detected and dispatched differs significantly across the nation because laws and regulations vary greatly.
In particular, a University of Iowa, Ames, study found that states that demand mandatory reporting and tracking of domestic elder abuse have much higher investigation rates than those without these requirements.
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Domestic eider abuse is the victimization of adults or dependent/ vulnerable adults age 60 and older--age 65 and older in California, Maryland, and Nebraska; age 55 and older in Alabama--who live in private residences, not care facilities. Dependent adults are unable to care for themselves as a result of a physical or mental condition and depend on others to help them with tasks of daily living.
"Our findings suggest that improvements and standardization are needed nationwide in how information on elder abuse is collected and how state laws are created," says Gerald Jogerst, associate professor and interim head of family medicine in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and lead investigator in the study.
A "report" is an allegation or suspicion of maltreatment received by a state's adult protective service; an "investigation" involves actually going to a potential victim's home to see whether abuse is taking place; and "substantiation" is the finding of offenses as defined by that state's law.
The researchers found that domestic elder abuse reports varied from 4.5 per 1,000 elders in New Hampshire to 14.6 in California. "The range of reporting rates is very high, and is one of the indicators that there is high variability in how states document elder abuse." Investigation rates ranged from .5 per 1,000 in Wyoming to 12.1 in Texas. Substantiations ranged from .1 per 1,000 in Wyoming to 8.6 in Minnesota. Forty-five percent of cases investigated were classified as actual abuse according to state laws.
"The National Association of Adult Protective Services has a model reporting system for states to mimic. However, some states are hindered in implementing the model because their adult and child protection services share a computerized system," points out Jeanette Daly, geriatric nurse researcher in family medicine and the study's co-principal investigator.
The researchers also found that states where investigators handle only elder abuse cases had a nearly 50% substantiation ratio compared to 34% where investigators handle both child and elder abuse cases. "This substantiation difference may exist because investigators devoted to one type of abuse probably acquire more expertise by doing more elder abuse investigations," Jogerst concludes.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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