Elder Abuse in the Family Environment. Implications for Education and Practice.

The main objective of the study was to obtain knowledge about the scale and expressions of victims and offenders. The method used is document analysis (police reports). The obtained data presents cases of abuse recorded during one calendar year. The results show that domestic violence against older people constituted 15% of all the reported cases, mostly emotional, physical and economic abuse. Based on collected data, the characteristics of victims and offenders were made. The prevention of elder abuse is based largely on changing the social attitudes and overcoming the stereotypes. This is a long-term task which should be carried out by educating the whole society, starting from the youngest generation.