Self-Care Ability . Cases of self neglect are often difficult to classify, since, strictly speaking, an individual believed to have the physical and mental resources to manage his own personal care was not defined by the study as self-neglectful. Persons experiencing neglect, abandonment, and self-neglect were most often reported as not able or only somewhat able to take care of themselves. Two-thirds of those alleged to have been physically abused were thought to have the ability to care for themselves, suggesting that such abuse is not just perpetrated on the very weakest persons. Somewhat around half of those facing financial or emotional abuse were considered able to take physical care of themselves.
Standard errors are large for most categories.
See Table 4-24. The confidence band for these numbers is wide, relative to the size of the estimate. The true number may be close to zero or much larger than the estimate. Confusion was most common among those who experienced neglect, abandonment, and self-neglect . Only 7 percent of those reported to have been neglected , and 20 percent of persons who were victims of self-neglect evidenced no signs of confusion.