Case detection of abused elderly parents

The authors summarize the types ofintrafamily violence affecting the elderly and state that denial by professionals and lack ofinformation are serious barriers to intervention. They present guidelines for case detection during the in-home interview, which include recognition of physical indicators, fearful behavior by the elderly victim, andfamily members ’ disinterest or aggressive behavior. The authors question the current practice of assigning unqualified personnel to conduct case assessment and propose training in the detection of intrafamily abuse of the elderly. T he field of mental health has dealt with intrafamily violence for almost two decades, that is, since shortly after Helfer and Kempe’s definition and docu-mentation of child abuse (1). Since then there have