Abuse May be Common but Often Hard to Quantify

State and Cornell University researchers estimated 260,000 New York residents older than the age of 65 were somehow abused or neglected — physically, financially or emotionally — in 2011.

But, without a national clearinghouse to collect the data and without uniform reporting methods, officials and elderly care advocates struggle to get a handle on how widespread abuse of America’s aging population is.

“It’s wildly underreported,” said Jean Callahan, executive director of Hunter College’s Brookings Center for Healthy Aging. “People in nursing homes are generally less capable than those out in the communities of speaking up for themselves.”

Federal officials and researchers are faced with collecting data from the nation’s disparate local and state law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and social service agencies.

That leaves them grabbing for numbers based on phone surveys and highly variable sources of data.

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Abuse May Be Common But Often Hard to Quantify