The European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research supports the Sustainable Development Goals
Violence and abuse of older persons has partially emerged from its taboo area in recent years, which has resulted in increased debates about the definition of violence. Comprehensive definitions range from discrimination based on age ("ageism"), age-related limitations and vulnerability to loneliness and social isolation through to criminally relevant experiences of violence among older people and their avoidance in various settings. “Elder abuse, neglect and maltreatment” has often been used as a comprehensive term in the anglo-saxon context, but as a reseaarch area it remains characterized by a dearth of interest and restricted data. The risk of experiencing at least one of the different forms of violence is likely to increase with age, but also with regard to gender, dependency and other intersectional factors. This may be a pragmatic reason why surveys are often limited to specific target groups, settings or forms of violence. The challenge therefore remains to operationalise a comprehensive concept of violence for a representative sample of society, drawing on international theoretical models and examples from practice to realize such surveys in a meaningful way.
The review of international sources revealed quite a number of national surveys that, however, were carried out only once during the past two decades. Results are thus likely to be outdated, and often they were restricted to specific groups only (e.g. upper age limit or limited to older women). Moreover, methods and survey instruments varied so that international comparisons are not feasible, which is even true for the very few international studies that were carried out in selected groups of countries. The about 20 national survey-based studies that were analysed have disclosed an extremely wide variation of shares of older persons that have experienced violence over the past 12 months. Depending on the country, respective methods, sample-sizes and target groups, the prevalence reaches from close to zero (Spain 2008) to more than 30 per cent (Mexico 2015, North Macedonia 2014), with 'psychological violence' as main form of abuse experienced.
In Austria, only one survey with a very small sample size was carried out in the framework of an EU project around 2010, revealing a prevalence rate of about 20 per cent, again mainly pschological violence experienced by older persons 65+. Older persons are a rather small group of clients at Austrian Centres for Protection Against Violence, but only scarce evidence is available regarding violence and abuse in care homes. It is therefore recommended to consider a larger survey with a screening tool and an ensuing in-depth questionnaire based on international exmples and adapted instruments that have been presented in this study.
The European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research supports the Sustainable Development Goals