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C2b Financial Exploitation of Older Adults in the United States
Key Words
Financial exploitation, Older adults, Seniors, Mental health, Social Work
Short Description
The present study explores in-depth the causes and consequences of financial exploitation from the perspectives of older adults. According to estimates, between 2.7% and 6.6% of older adults lose an approximately $109 million of personal wealth each year. One out of every 44 cases of financial exploitation involving older adults go unreported for various reasons including, but not limited to the victims’ relationships with the perpetrators and limited knowledge of and access to legal services. A mixed-method approach was utilized to understand the financial and non-financial impacts of exploitation. Our preliminary results suggest a high prevalence of psychological distress among the older adults who accessed the clinic. 27.3% of the clinic’s clients suffered from severe psychological distress, which is substantially higher than the national average of 4.2% adults in the United States. Another 27% of the clinic’s clients showed mild to moderate psychological distress. While criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits are important to deal with the perpetrators, our findings suggest that trauma-based and mental health interventions as a first step may prove useful to the older adults coping with what might be the permanent loss of money and resources.
First & Corresponding Author
Gaurav Sinha, University of Illinois
Authors in the order to be printed
Gaurav Sinha, Christopher Larrison