According to research, the lack of definitional and legal clarity
regarding instances of elderly abuse could be responsible for a large
number of rural cases going unreported.
by Liz Carey
Experts say elder abuse in rural communities is a problem, but
finding ways to solve it means clarifying how states define it and who
should report it.
One in 10 older adults across the country
reported experiencing some form of abuse during the previous year,
according to a recent report from the National Center on Elder Abuse.
For every single report of abuse, there are 24 incidents that may go
unreported, the study claimed.
Although research on elder abuse
in rural communities is limited, there is some evidence that older
adults living in rural and remote areas are at greater risk of abuse
because of their geographic isolation, lack of support services, and
poorer health.
Elder abuse encompasses physical, emotional/psychological, sexual, and financial abuse, as well as neglect and self-neglect,” a 2023 study by the RHRC stated.
“There is some evidence that older adults living in rural and remote
areas are at greater risk for abuse than their urban-dwelling
counterparts. Some unique characteristics of rural America, including
less densely populated communities, more geographic isolation, and
scarce resources may conceal abuse, thereby inhibiting prevention and
intervention. Rural older adults also tend to have less education and
fewer financial resources, and are in poorer health than their urban
counterparts, possibly creating barriers to leaving abusive situations.”
In
order to protect older rural residents from elder abuse, the 2023 RHCR
study argues, lawmakers first need to define what it is and who is
responsible for reporting.
“These statutes also vary quite a bit
by the age covered,” Alexis Swendener, a coauthor of the policy brief,
said. “It’s not always the same. I saw anywhere from 50 to 70 (years
old) defined as an older adult or senior adult. Some of the statutes
were related to just any vulnerable adult, so a dependent adult would
qualify and they weren’t age-defined. That was surprising to me that the
protected population wasn’t necessarily based on age.”
The findings mean that policy makers need to be more clear
on what elder abuse is and how state laws can and should protect older
rural residents. Swendener said the differences make for difficult
analysis and ineffective policymaking.
“As I was sifting through
these statutes […] I was thinking about how the differences make it
pretty difficult for us to know overall what the scope of the problem
is,” she said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.
“These state
statutes – it’s not necessarily elder abuse that they’re talking about …
and if we collected data on it, it’s not consistently about just older
adults – some of the laws are about vulnerable adults or dependent
adults. Some of them have age defined in them and some of them don’t.”
The
RHCR study initially aimed to find the differences between rural and
urban elder abuse by looking at statistics of elder abuse across the
country. What the researchers found was differences in every area, from
who is mandated to report elder abuse to how elder abuse is defined.
The
mere makeup of rural communities and their people may also affect how
many victims of rural elder abuse there are reported, said Nels
Holmgren, director of Aging and Adult Services in Utah. Speaking about
what he sees in Utah, he noted that there may be more people in urban
areas to report elder abuse, and there may be more older people in rural
Utah who don’t want anyone to know they are being abused.
“I think, in some of our urban settings, there are more reporters,
there are more people sometimes that have eyes on these situations. In
our rural areas, there are simply fewer people to do that
investigation,” Holmgren said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.
“Certainly in rural communities, there’s a real sense of rugged
independence, and people are less likely to ask for help because partly
they value their independence and do things on their own.”
Rural
elder abuse and neglect are relatively high in rural areas, and
screening and prevention are needed to protect against elder abuse,
according to the National Institutes of Health.
In a 2022 study of more than 10,000 rural older adults, an estimated
seven percent reported physical abuse, five percent reported financial
abuse, 17% reported psychological and emotional abuse and 26% reported
neglect.
Swendener said her study looked at six different kinds of
elder abuse – emotional abuse, financial abuse, physical abuse, sexual
abuse, neglect, and self-neglect. The study found that 72.2% of the most
rural states, 55.6% of the somewhat rural states, and 66.7% of the
least rural states clearly covered all six abuse types in their state
statutes. Sexual abuse and self-neglect were the two areas of elder
abuse least likely to be clearly mentioned, she said.
While about 1
in 10 older adults experiences some form of elder abuse nationwide,
research on elder abuse in rural communities remains limited, according
to researchers at the Rural Health Research Center at the University of
Minnesota.
“The most common thing that we’re dealing with is
self-neglect, but often if we can get to the people of self-neglect,
those issues are often easier to resolve … and the person is usually in a
better position afterward,” Holmgren said. “It’s disconcerting, the
growth in financial exploitation. We’re also dealing with individuals
closer to the person who are using the person’s funds inappropriately. I
believe somewhere north of half of our cases are self-neglect.”
In
July 2024, an elderly woman in Medina County, Ohio, was swindled out of
$100,000. Marilyn Glauner, 81, said she got a phone call from someone
who said they were with Publisher’s Clearinghouse and that she had won
$8 million and a car. By the end of the phone call, she’d sent off three
cashier’s checks totaling $100,000 and $3,000 in gift cards.
When
her children found out that the money was missing, one of her sons
called the police to help. Officials were able to stop two of the
checks, but one of the checks had already been cashed.
Holmgren
said one of the key elements in protecting rural seniors from elder
abuse is reporting. The increased isolation some rural seniors
experience can make that difficult. While senior services can get to
older adults if they know there is a need, finding out that the adult
needs help is the first step, he said.
”It’s harder for people
that may not be on the radar of those agencies,” he said. “That’s the
trickier part, especially in a rural area. There’s just fewer
opportunities to interact. Once they know who they are and where they
are and what they need, then I think (support agencies) are able to very
effectively connect people.”
By defining the problem and how it
is addressed, policy makers could increase awareness of elder abuse in
rural communities and combat it at its source, Swendener said.
“Making
folks aware of how to prevent elder abuse and keeping folks in contact
with each other by increasing social support and reducing social
isolation, especially for folks in rural areas, is a good start to
addressing the problem,” she said.
Full Article & Source:
Study: To Better Protect Elderly Rural Adults, Laws Need to Be Updated
