The Power of Personal Protection Orders for Older and Vulnerable Adults

• Pages: 82-85
• Date: 01 May 2025
• Published date: 01 May 2025
• Author: Emily J. Miller
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Bifocal 46 Issue 5

82

As a civil legal aid attorney representing survivors

of elder abuse, I am constantly reminded of the

profound and devastating eects that mistreat-

ment has on older and vulnerable adults. My clients

often experience a cascade of psychological harm, -

nancial ruin, physical harm, and, in our worst cases,

death. These outcomes are born out in national statistics

showing that elder abuse victims experience mortality

rates three times higher than that of non-victims,1 in-

creased hospitalization due to higher rates of depres-

1 Lachs MS, Williams CS, O’Brien S, Pillemer

KA, Charlson ME. The Mortality of Elder Mistreatment. The

Journal of the American Medical Association. 1998; 280(5):

428–432. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9701077/)

sion and social withdrawal,2 and nancial losses over

$28 billion.3

Clients who reach out for legal assistance often report

that the recent bruises are just the tip of the iceberg – a

physical manifestation of the emotional coercive control

that had been present and building over years. In fact,

the most common forms of older adult mistreatment

are financial exploitation, neglect, and psychologi-

cal abuse.4 Further, those who experience the abuse

are often reluctant to report because their perpe-

trator is someone they care for and do not want to

get in trouble with law enforcement. The National

Center of Elder Abuse reports that that vast ma-

jority of perpetrators - 60% - were reported to be

family members or non-family caregivers, while only

6.7% victims reported not knowing the identity of their

abuser.5 Given these statistics, it is not surprising that

2 Adams, Jerome, Robertson, Lance; Administration for

Community Living Blog; Elder Abuse: A public health issue that

aects us all; June 15, 2018 (https://acl.gov/news-and-events/acl-

blog/elder-abuse-public-health-issue-aects-all-us-0)

3 Gunther, Jilenne; The Scope of Elder Financial Ex-

ploitation: What It Costs Victims. American Association of

Retired Persons; June 27, 2023 (https://www.aarp.org/pri/

topics/work-nances-retirement/fraud-consumer-protec-

tion/scope-elder-nancial-exploitation.html)

4 Yon, Y., Mikton, C. R., Gassoumis, Z. D., &

Wilber, K. H. (2017). Elder abuse prevalence in commu-

nity settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The

Lancet Global Health, 5(2), e147-e156; Acierno, R.,

Hernandez-Tejada, M., Muzzy, W., & Steve, K. (2009).

National Elder Mistreatment Study (NCJ # 226456). Wash-

ington, DC: National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice

Programs, U.S. Department of Justice

5 Weissberger, G. H., et al. Elder abuse characteristics

based on calls to the National Center on elder abuse resource

line. Journal of Applied Gerontology. October 2020 (https://

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31364442/)

The Power of Personal Protection Orders for

Older and Vulnerable Adults

By Emily J. Miller; Program Director-

Crime Victim’s Legal Assistance Project;

Michigan Statewide Advocacy Services