Did You Know?

Although there are no official national statistics, current conservative estimates show that 1 of every 4 women living in the United States today is a victim of physical, emotional or mental abuse or otherwise exploited or mistreated. This numbers abuse of the older victim at approximately 4 million women.

Everyone is at risk! Abuse can happen to anyone. As with other types of interpersonal violence, older victims are never responsible for their abuse, perpetrators are responsible.

With mature women, whose children are grown, the great majority of abusers are family members, most often an adult child or spouse.

Abuse is the infliction of physical, emotional, or psychological harm to an older adult. It can also take the form of financial exploitation or intentional neglect by a caregiver.
It has only been recently (in the 1990's) that abuse of the older woman has been identified as a major problem. Previously these women have fallen between the cracks of the abuse and domestic violence systems.