Samenvatting

Older people can become victims of abuse by someone they know and whom they depend on, such as family, friends or professional caregivers. Elder abuse is not always intentional, sometimes it is due to care falling short. Conducting a study to explore the prevalence of elder abuse is difficult. Commissioned by the Dutch State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport, the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) has brought together the current knowledge on this topic using the most recent data drawn from qualitative research, surveys of older persons, professionals and volunteers, and record data. The sources together do not produce an unambiguous picture of the actual number of victims in the Netherlands. All sources produce far lower figures than the estimated 200,000 based on a study of twenty years ago. The numbers found depend strongly on the research method and definition of the phenomenon.