Who is affected
The quiet abuse of older people
One in six people over sixty experienced abuse in the past year, and most of it happens at the hands of family. It rarely gets called domestic violence, which is part of the problem.
By Nopa Foundation Editorial Team · April 21, 2026 · 5 min read
The World Health Organization estimates that one in six people aged sixty and over experienced some form of abuse in a community setting in the past year, and that rates rose during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of that abuse is not committed by strangers or by care home staff. It is committed at home, by an adult child, a spouse, or a relative who has moved in.
It usually begins with something that looks like help. Someone takes over the banking because the forms have become difficult. Someone starts collecting the post. Someone drives to the appointments and starts answering for the patient in the room. Each step is reasonable. Together they can amount to a person losing control of their own life.
Financial abuse is the most commonly reported form, and the easiest to disguise. Pension payments redirected. A card used without permission. A property signed over during an illness. Care that is quietly conditional on the money continuing to flow.
But neglect and psychological abuse cause enormous harm too. Medication withheld or given wrongly. Mobility aids moved out of reach. A hearing aid that goes missing and is never replaced. Being shouted at, or being spoken about in the third person by someone standing beside the bed.
The reason older people so rarely report is not confusion. It is that the person hurting them is very often the person they depend on, and frequently a person they love. Reporting means risking the care, the housing, and the relationship all at once. Many decide the arithmetic does not work.
There are practical warning signs a visiting friend or clergy member can watch for. Unexplained withdrawals or new names on accounts. A relative who insists on being present at every appointment. Sudden isolation from a church or a club they never used to miss. Fear or flinching around one specific family member. Weight loss, untreated conditions, poor hygiene in someone who was always fastidious.
In Texas, suspected abuse, neglect or exploitation of a person aged sixty five and over, or an adult with disabilities, can be reported to the Texas Abuse Hotline on 1-800-252-5400, twenty four hours a day. You do not need proof to make a report. You need a reasonable concern.
If the person you are worried about is your parent, or your neighbour, and you are unsure whether it is your business, treat that hesitation as a sign to make a call rather than a reason not to.