CHILE: One In Three of Elderly Suffers Some Form of Abuse

SANTIAGO, Chile (Global Action on Ageing), September 23, 2005: Although Chile has no statistics on abuse of its elderly, three recent Latin American demographical studies show that at least 30% of older Chileans regularly suffer some form of mistreatment ranging from negligence, to physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Despite the alarmingly high rate of elderly abuse, of the 600 studies concerning elderly members of the Chilean population, only one deals with physical and psychological mistreatment. According to one of the three recent Latin American studies, the abuse of elderly women (33.2%) is slightly more common than that of men (26.9%). The most common form of abuse is psychological. Most victims of elderly abuse do not look for help, and those who do tend to consult with friends, based on the assumption that to look for help through public services would be futile. http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=45040604&u=417225