Over the last 20 years, increased public and political awareness has developed alongside research, policy and professional developments to advance our understanding of the abuse of older people in families, communities, hospitals and institutional settings. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) argued that elder abuse was a distinct social problem, defining abuse as ‘a single, repeated act or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which caused harm or distress to an older person’ (WHO, 2002). In 2007, the first United Kingdom (UK) prevalence study of elder abuse reported that 4% of older people living in the community were subject to abuse or neglect (O’Keefe et al, 2007). In 2010, a prevalence study of elder abuse in Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain and Sweden found that 19.4% of older people aged 60–84 years were exposed to psychological abuse; 2.7% to physical abuse; 0.7% to sexual abuse; and 3.8% to financial abuse (Soares et al, 2010).
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