Many potentially explosive situations can be defused if knowledge of the existence of elder abuse and of it's causes are provided to society. The persons abused and the criteria used are not universally accepted, and this disparity may account for the variation in the prevalence of elder abuse from investigator to investigator. Unfortunately the problem of elder abuse is likely to grow as the percentage of those afflicted with Alzheimer's disease increases along with population growth. Only recently has attention been focused on abuse of the elderly. Elder abuse was not given attention until the 1960s, and significant area was not begun until about 1978, when several investigators began studying the problem.
Abusers are most likely to be close familily members, usually an adult child of the patient.
Sons more often than daughers are prone to feel that their parents should continue to support them in their old age, even though these parents may have developed mental impirments or phsyical disabilities. Since sons continue to expect parents to provide the nuturing and parental role, they may be having difficulty accepting the fact that their parents are aging and failing in health. THis continues on to include the definition of elder abuse, recognition od and abuser and victim profiles and more.