Elder Abuse: A Survey of Managers of Residential Care Facilities in Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to establish the occurrence of elder abuse in facilities providing residential care in Wellington, New Zealand, provide examples of the types of elder abuse, and identify the action taken as a result of elder abuse. All licensed facilities providing residential care in Wellington were contacted. Face to face interviews with the manager of the facility were conducted. Twenty-six managers responsible for 27 facilities were interviewed. Ninety-two percent of the managers were able to identify at least one resident in the last year who had been subjected to elder abuse. For 31% of facilities, elder abuse was a factor in admission of at least one resident to the facility. The most frequently identified form of abuse was psychological abuse followed by financial and physical abuse. When asked to identify the person responsible for a particular instance of abuse, a spouse, child or another relative was nominated in 63% instances. Services which arrange extra home support or respite care, “service co-ordination and assessment” services, were the most frequent contact for particular instances of abuse followed by direct discussion with family and contact with the police. The Elder Abuse Program run by Age Concern New Zealand was infrequently contacted by residential care facilities although the Age Concern program is well known to these facilities.