Q: What is Elder Abuse?
A: Elder abuse refers to any knowing, intentional, or negligent act by a caregiver or any other person that causes harm or a serious risk of harm to a vulnerable adult.
In New Jersey, this can mean:
- Abandonment: Deserting an elderly person when one has assumed the responsibility of caring for him or her
- Emotional Abuse: Inflicting mental pain, anguish, or distress on an elderly person via verbal or non-verbal communications or acts
- Exploitation: Illegally taking, misusing, or concealing an elderly person’s funds, property, or assets
- Neglect: Refusal or failure by those responsible to provide food, shelter, health care or protection for an elderly person.
- Physical Abuse: Inflicting, or threatening to inflict, physical pain or injury on an elderly person or depriving him or her of a basic need
- Sexual Abuse: Non-consensual sexual contact of any kind with an elderly person
- Bedsores
- Falls
- Malnutrition
- Being kept in an over-medicated state
- Staff refusing or delaying visitation
- Unexpected death
- Unexplained injuries
- Unexplained venereal disease, genital infections, vaginal or anal bleeding, or torn/stained/bloody undergarments
- Unsanitary conditions
- Privacy
- Reasonable access to health and legal services
- To be free from corporal punishment, seclusion, and physical as well as chemical restraints
- To be free from verbal, sexual, physical, and mental abuse
- To be transferred or discharged only for medical reasons
- To be treated courteously, fairly, and with the fullest measure of dignity
- To receive adequate and appropriate health care