Home Health & Hospice Week

More than 1 in 10 of those you treat could be suffering.

Despite the increase in awareness about abuse of the elderly, the problem is still extensive and in areas other than physical. Verbal abuse and financial mistreatment of seniors were hot topics in a recent study.

The study, from the Gerontological Society of America, concludes that nearly 13 percent of America's aged citizens living in the community suffer some form of abuse, according to a GSA press release. Specifically, 9 percent of adults reported they have suffered from verbal mistreatment and 3.5 percent suffer financial mistreatment. Of those surveyed, only 0.2 percent suffer from physical mistreatment, the release said.

A team headed by Edward O. Laumann at the University of Chicago conducted the research, and the findings were based on the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, which conducted interviews with more than 3,000 community-dwelling residents aged 57 to 85.

Why it matters: "The population of the country is aging, and people now live with chronic diseases longer. So it's important to understand, from a health perspective, how people are being treated as they age," Laumann says.

Demographic variances: The Chicago re-searchers found that females were nearly twice as likely to report verbal mistreatment, but no higher level of financial mistreatment, than men. Latinos were about half as likely as whites to report verbal mistreatment and 78 percent less likely to report financial mistreatment. Blacks, on the other hand, were 77 percent more likely to report financial mistreatment than whites.

Most elders reported that the mistreatment was perpetrated by someone other than a member of their immediate family. Of those who reported verbal mistreatment, 26 percent identified their spouse or romantic partner as the person responsible; 15 percent said their child verbally mistreated them; and 57 percent said that the mistreating party was someone other than a spouse, parent, or child.

Watch out for those financial planners: A total of 56 percent of those who reported financial mistreatment said that someone other than a member of their immediate family was responsible. Of family members, children were mentioned most often and spouses rarely. Ex-spouses, in-laws, and siblings were all identified by some respondents as responsible for mistreatment.

In September, the Senate Finance Commit-tee unanimously passed the Elder Justice Act (S. 1070), according to the National Council on Aging. But the Senate failed to consider the legislation in full before it adjourned this session.

The Finance Committee also passed Sen. Herb Kohl's (D-Wis.) Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act (S. 1577). This legislation would create a framework and provide funding for a coordinated, nationwide system of background checks for long-term care employees.

On the House side, Rep. Joe Sestak's (D-Pa.) Elder Abuse Victims Act (H.R. 5352) got further. The full House passed the bill in September and forwarded it to the Senate's Judiciary Committee.

The issue may not have been resolved this session, but there's always next session. "Lawmak-ers should support efforts to establish a national registry and background check system ... for all health and LTC workers, including independent providers who provide direct care to patients," says the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. "Such a system should be voluntary until an efficient and accessible background check system is in place. Federal and state background check requirements should not be duplicative."

Note: The study is published in The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Vol. 63B, No. 4.