Elder abuse is increasingly viewed as the least recognized, least understood, and least addressed area of family violence in our society. A frequent form of elder abuse is financial abuse, with accompanying devastating effects for elders. The objectives of this research are to: (1) identify risk and protective factors that contribute to or are associated with the financial abuse of the elderly as opposed to other forms of elder abuse; (2) compare the perceptions of APS caseworkers and elder persons; (3) compare the outcomes of the various forms of elder abuse; and (4) discuss the appropriateness of the APS intervention in response to financial exploitation.
Using a structured interview developed specifically for this research, 240 APS caseworkers, 240 abused elder persons, and 120 other individuals who have intimate knowledge of the case (friend, relative, caretaker) will be interviewed about "closed" incidents that occurred in the previous 18 months. The abuse incident will be either: (1) financial abuse exclusively (N = 60), (2) physical abuse (excluding sexual abuse) exclusively (N = 60), (3) neglect (excluding self-neglect) exclusively (N = 60), or (4) hybrid cases involving financial abuse and some other form of elder abuse (N = 60). Each caseworker will identify a case and invite the abused elder persons to participate in this study. If the elder person agrees to participate, the caseworker and the elder person will then be interviewed separately about the case. A participating elder person will also be asked to invite a third party who has intimate knowledge of the case (where one exists) to participate. If this individual agrees, he/she will also be interviewed separately.
The National Research Council (2003) reported that the national response to elder mistreatment remains weak and incomplete and that elder mistreatment remains hidden, poorly characterized, and largely unaddressed. Although greater attention has been given to financial abuse of the elderly in recent years, most of the accompanying commentary relies on anecdotal evidence, personal experience, or commonly-shared beliefs. This research will provide previously lacking empirical insights into financial exploitation that will be useful to practitioners (APS workers, law enforcement) and policy makers (Departments of Social Services, legislatures) responding to this abuse. Furthermore, by exploring this abuse within the context of society's predominant means of responding to this abuse, this project will systematically examine perceptions of the effectiveness of this response.