Statistics: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has one of the largest elderly populations in the nation. The State Data Center reports that Pennsylvania ranks fifth nationally in the number of elderly and second, only to Florida, in the proportion of the total population of the state that is 65 years of age and older. In 1996 more than 20 percent of Pennsylvania´s population was 60 years of age and 16 percent was estimated to be 65 years or older. these numbers have continued to increase since 1996, with Pennsylvania´s current estimated population of elderly being 1,912,200.

State law requires the Pennsylvania Department of Aging to operate a program of older adult protective services to individuals 60 years of age, or above, who are neglected, abused, financially exploited or who are abandoned by their care givers (see 35 P.S. Section 10225.101, et. seq., The Pennsylvania Older Adult Protective Services Act). These mandated services are delivered through the Department of Aging´s fifty-two affiliated area agencies on aging, which serve the state´s 67 counties. The services are delivered twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. Reports of need for protective services are made to local area agencies on aging voluntarily, by persons aware of an elder´s need, or as a result of Pennsylvania´s mandatory reporting statute. The mandatory reporting statute requires operators and employees of long term care facilites to report suspected cases of abuse and neglect to the local area agency on aging, and in some circumstances to the police (see Act 13 of 1997).

During the Department of Aging´s 2002-2003 reporting period, the State´s area agencies on aging received 13,181 reports of need for protective services, an increase of 6.1 percent over the 2000-01 period. Investigation of these reports resulted in 2,838 being substantiated as requiring services to protect the health, safety and welfare of the referred elder.

The Department´s statistics indicate that the elderly victims of abuse, neglect, financial exploitation and abandonment in Pennsylvania are very old women, with 72 percent of the victims being over 75 years of age. The majority of perpetrators are caregivers to the victim.

The Department´s 2002-2003 data reveal that over 25 percent of the substantiated reports involved abuse (physical abuse, sexual assault and other forms of assault.) Another 13.5 percent of the substantiated cases involved financial exploitation of the elder´s assets (theft of funds or property). All three of these categories of elder mistreatment (physical abuse, sexual assault and theft of funds) are criminal acts. The vast majority of these crimes are not reported to the police, nor prosecuted. When they are reported, frequently so much time has passed since the commission of the crime that evidence has been lost, witness accounts have gone undocumented and suspected perpetrators have had the opportunity to fabricate explanations, making prosecution difficult, at best.

There is increasing evidence that elders residing in long term care institutions are experiencing greater levels of caretaker mistreatment, with resulting injury. While in 2002-2003, 66.7 percent of elder abuse victims resided in the community, 30.1 percent of the substantiated cases of abuse, neglect, exploitation and abandonment were for individuals living in long term care facilities. This is remarkable given that only 5 percent of the state´s older population lives in long term care settings. Thus the level of substantiated mistreatment in long-term care is approximately three times greater that the percentage of the population, which resides there.