Oregon investigators are finding more cases of elder and disabled abuse, according to a report that state officials released Wednesday.
The state's Office of Adult Abuse Prevention and Investigations received more than 30,000 complaints last year, and substantiated more than 8,000 of them.
Prevention coordinator Rebecca Fetters says officials have been teaching people how to report abuse.
She says that, and an aging population point to an ongoing trend: "We expect numbers to keep going up. But we like to think that we're keeping pace with the population growth, and just continuing to make reporting easier for the folks in Oregon, and make them more aware of abuse as an issue."
Financial abuse constitutes more than thirty percent of substantiated case. Another 28 percent involve neglect, followed by verbal and physical abuse cases. The report's scope includes more than a half million Oregonians - most of whom are older adults or people with physical disabilities.
Copyright 2014 Oregon Public Broadcasting
