The Abuse of Elderly People: Considerations for Practice

Correspondence to Ms. B. Penhale, Team Leader, Social Work Department, West Norwich Hospital, Bowthorpe Road, Norwich NR2 2TU. Summary Within the last six years, concern about the abuse of elderlypeople by their informal carers has increased in Britain. However,problems remain in the identification and treatment of boththose who are abused and their abusers. The purpose of thispaper is to consider some of the barriers to the identificationof abuse; to look at the similarities and differences betweenthe abuse of elderly people and other forms of family violence(in particular child abuse) and to discuss the implicationsof these for social work practice.