According to NRS 200.5092 an older person is a person 60 years of age or older. Elder abuse is something that we hear about and in this blog we will take a deeper look into elder abuse. There are five different types of elder abuse that we collect data for: abandonment, abuse (physical, psychological, sexual), neglect, exploitation, and isolation. Elder Protective Services provides helpful information about elder abuse. Their website (http://adsd.nv.gov/Programs/Seniors/EPS/EPS_Prog/) has elder abuse prevention training, elder abuse reporting system, “who can report a case of elder abuse?”, etc. Anyone can report elder abuse and if you live in the Las Vegas/Clark County area you can call 702-486-6930 and if you live in all other areas of the state you can call 888-729-0571. Call the local police, sheriff’s office or emergency medical service if an older person is in immediate danger. If a person is willing to accept a service provided by the Elder Protective Services they can get an investigation, evaluation, and an arrangement.
A search of news regarding elder abuse shows some disturbing crimes.
In the state of Nevada there is an estimate of 15.3% of the state’s population being 65 years of age or older. This is a 2017 estimate from the United States Census. As we talked about earlier elder abuse is 60 years of age or older so that estimate would be higher than the 15.3%. What do these numbers mean? Well based off of other estimates and numbers from the census there is around 450,000 people in the state of Nevada that can be a victim of elder abuse.
Our elders deserve protection so if you see something please report the situation. As a community we hopefully can help protect the elderly more.