Kentucky State Finds Roughly 368 Cases of Criminal Elder Abuse
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that state social workers conducted roughly 2,048 investigations into allegations of adult abuse and neglect in nursing homes last year and discovered 368 of those reports actually involved some sort of abuse or neglect. In addition, the investigation uncovered 7,365 investigations of abuse of people aged 60 and older and 1,859 of those investigations proved to involve abuse against victims.
Kentucky police handed down 316 criminal charges total among the 1,859 cases. The report also provides information on abuse investigations involving victims ranging in age from 18 to 59 years of age. The findings in this report were presented to representatives for many agencies and organizations dedicated to preventing this type of abuse.
The most important thing to take away from this report is the sheer number of cases against both elders over 60 years of age and vulnerable adults under 60. There are many state and national organizations devoted to combating this problem of elder and adult abuse and neglect but the numbers reported in the state of Kentucky alone prove that there is still a long way to go. 7,365 investigations and 1,859 yielded actual abuse. This equates to roughly 25% of all investigations involving people over the age of 60.
This is an indication that the number of victims of elder abuse and neglect throughout the country is much larger. These annual reports provide a quantitative view of how many cases still plague the United States and they should also serve as a road map of sorts to determine if current actions dedicated to preventing and/or reducing elder abuse and neglect are truly working as they should be.
