老人保護服務現況與策略

The Current State and Coping Strategies of the Elderly Protective Services in Taiwan

老人虐待是相當複雜的，涉及到人權、性別平等、家庭暴力及人口老化。虐待事件常常發生在兒童、婦女、身障及老人被歧視、疏忽、虐待。由於文化影響，老人受虐數據常被低估，在美國估計每年有200 萬老人受到生理、心理及其他形式的虐待或疏忽。本文旨在探討我國老人保護現況、防治與因應之道。過去我國對於年長者之服務注重福利服務面向的提供，老人虐待議題在上一世紀90 年代才開始關切。受虐老人大多是在生活中無法獨立自主或不能自我照顧的失能與失智老人，由於其身心各方面的老化，加上臥病在床，生活起居需完全依賴照顧者，導致照顧者負擔過大，而造成虐待事件的發生，老人可能是弱勢族群需要保護服務介入。
2013 年衛生福利部成立，將老人保護工作由原內政部社會司移交衛生福利部保護司第二科家庭暴力防治科主責，並研訂規劃老人保護個案通報處遇流程，依據文獻提出老人虐待案件防治與因應之對策，建立妥適之老人保護工作模式，以確保老人人身安全與相關權益。

Elder abuse is multifactorial reality, a source of concern today related to human rights, gender equality, domestic violence and aging population. Most often victims of discrimination, neglect or violence are children, women, elderly disabled people. In all cultures, elderly abuse is under reported. Every year an estimated 2.1million older Americans are victims of physical, psychological, or other forms of abuse and neglect. This article mainly discusses and reviews the current status and future prospect of the causes of elder abuse as well as prevention and responsive measures. It includes the previous roles of the elderly played in the family, their bad habit, the lack of caring ability of the counterparties, insufficient caring resources due to poor financial statuses, roles and interactions among family members. This article also summarizes the practical challenges of social workers in elder protection and proposes suggestions to prevention as policy reference.