Elderly abuse or elderly neglect can be put within the general category of violence that may be designed for different populations (women, children, seniors, etc.). Mistreating the elderly can occur in different areas: community, institution, society, etc. If it occurs on the community level, a category in which you can include it in the domestic or family violence, which also includes child maltreatment and intimate partner violence. These categories, although they share some characteristics (for example, the fact the victims depend, the person responsible for abuses of their basic needs), including specific life aspects (for example the fact that violence takes place in different social levels and individual).
Until recently, research on family violence has been focused exclusively on child maltreatment (item which starts to investigate and publish in the sixties) and partner abuse (emerge from the seventies). It is mistreat the last major category by which took researchers concerns. The interest in this theme begins to come forth from the second half of the seventies and early eighties with articles by Baker (1975) and Burston (1975), although these early studies to further abuse is exclusively within the family context, directed at older women and referring mostly to physical abuse.
Among the reasons why elderly mistreatment was the last major category of family violence, are because the problems that have arisen which it refers. This is because each author has developed its own definition and from there their typology. Gradually, this idea has changed with the discovery, for example, the greatest abuse occurs not just in the family (afflicted by family, friends, neighbors) It is also happened in the institutional (residential, day), by professionals and by society in general that attitudes through old people. This has held a negative view of the older person is perceived as dependent, need constant help and support, or through attitudes infantilized (treating the older person like a child). However, although for many years it has been perceived as the family area which provided love and affection. It is still being considered rather than protection for their members is in this area where there the highest frequency of abuse towards protection older people, with relatives or family members who are more frequent contact with an older person, children and spouses, who more often are responsible for the same.
Elderly abuse is not just directed more towards older women but to men, although there are older women battered. There are some reasons to explain this gender differences, first women have a longer life expectancy, being proportionately larger compare with men; this group is having higher the likelihood of abuse. Second, it is more often the result of mistreatment by a woman seeks social health care, possibly because of the greater likelihood that with women related of physical abuse. Also, it is more likely that a woman (as abused victims) make report compare to a man, for example because of embarrassment or fear of not being believed. Sometimes, mistreating older women as part of gender abuse has been occurring before old age.
There are different types of abuse towards the elderly including physical, sexual, psychological or emotional, financial, neglect, etc. Although progressively it becomes greater attention to the issue of abuse towards the elderly. However, much remains to be done to reach the level of care with other types of violence such as child abuse and Couples particularly in Spain recently where this issue has begun to become important. The awareness and sensitivity of professionals working with older people can contribute to addressing this problem to allow both older people at risk of alcohol abuse in elderly as those already in battered or are suffering some form of neglect, come to recognize their situation.
However it must be admitted that the mistreatment of older generations may be more difficult to identify than child abuse or partner due to the presence of barriers that may be present in the older person, the caregiver, the professionals and society in general. For example, the social isolation of older people abused, the denial of the situation both from the older person as the person responsible for abuse, lack of awareness on the subject by professionals, the age, discrimination against older people simply because of age, all of which act as barriers to the identification of this form of abuse.
