UK study of abuse and neglect of older people: qualitative findings

This study was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research and King’s College London and commissioned and co-funded by Comic Relief and the Department of Health. It presents findings of in-depth interviews with a selection of older people who have experienced abuse and mistreatment.

This qualitative study forms part of a wider programme of research involving a literature review, focus groups with service-providers and stakeholders, a national survey of over 2000 older people and a feasibility study for researching elder mistreatment in care homes. The study involved 36 follow-up interviews with older people who had responded to the survey and three interviews with older people accessed through specialist BME organisations. Twenty-two of these involved incidents where the perpetrator was a family member, paid carer or close friend. The remaining cases involved neighbours, acquaintances and, exceptionally, strangers. Three interviews were also carried out with family members who had supported the older person.