Each year, an estimated five million Americans age 60 or older will experience some form of elder abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Daniel Lindberg, MD, professor of emergency medicine in the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has seen an increase reflected in elder abuse cases in the emergency department at UCHealth.
“We’re up to four elder abuse consults per week. That’s twice the volume this year compared to last year, and last year was twice that of the year before” he says.
Elder abuse extends beyond physical abuse seen by emergency physicians. Elders experience neglect, abandonment, and emotional, sexual, and financial abuse. A major challenge Lindberg identifies is that elder abuse cases are handled differently than other abuse cases due to the lack of nationwide guidelines for identifying and reporting maltreatment of elders. Read more on this CU news article by Colleen Miracle here.
