A survey of nursing home administrators' and ombudsmen's perceptions of elderly abuse in Pennsylvania.

The topic of elder abuse has been a source of growing concern and research over the past decade. Nationally, it is believed that about four percent of our elders (people over 60 years of age) are abused, even though every state currently has laws protecting abuse of elders. Therefore, health care professionals and the general public should be educated in order to ensure detection and reporting of elder abuse so that the victims receive appropriate care and protection. To the authors' knowledge, little or no published research has been done to assess the perceptions of nursing home administrators (NHAs) and ombudsmen with respect to elder abuse. This study explored Pennsylvania NHAs' and ombudsmen's knowledge of detecting, reporting, and managing elder abuse cases. Also, data were collected regarding the perceptions of Pennsylvania NHAs and ombudsmen about the knowledge of their nursing facility personnel in the areas of detection, legislation, and regulation of elder abuse.