Chapter 68: Elder Abuse

Brian K. Payne

Elder abuse Since the 1970s, elder abuse has been increasingly recognized as a problem across the world. Attention from researchers first surfaced when Baker (1975) discussed the concept of “granny battering” in British medical journals in the mid-1970s. In the United States, interest paralleled a series of political actions, media exposures, and research reports. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Aging held a hearing called “The Hidden Problem.” Around the same time, an episode of Quincy , a late-1970s TV drama series, depicted a case of elder abuse. Katz (1990) argues that the Quincy episode built support for the elder abuse agenda and contributed to public demands for changes in state and federal statutes. Also, The Battered Elder Syndrome was published by Block and Sinnott (1979) around this time, giving increased attention to problems of abuse encountered by older adults. Since that time, many have accepted that elder abuse ...

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