Elder Abuse in America – The Numbers Are In
New data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that in 2018 there were over 282,000 cases of elder abuse reported. Among the types of abuse reported were neglect (37,677 cases), financial exploitation (33,685 cases), emotional abuse (25,321 cases), physical abuse (20,406 cases), and “other” (17,606); but the largest category unfortunately was self-neglect which eclipsed the preceding five categories combined at 144,296 cases reported. This startling figure has been on the rise in recent years, and these were only the cases which were reported.