Domestic violence and abuse does not disappear as people age. But the circumstances surrounding abuse, and the reasons someone may or may not seek help, can look distinctly different in later life.
An older adult may depend financially or physically on the person harming them. The person causing harm may be a spouse of decades, an adult child, or another family member. Fear of losing relationships, housing, independence, or caregiving support may complicate decisions about whether to share the violence they are experiencing. And when older adults do seek help, the services available to them may not always reflect those realities.
A new systematic review asks an important question for aging-services providers: What actually shapes whether older adults experiencing domestic violence and abuse disclose, seek help, and experience professional responses as helpful?
The Research
Researchers conducted a systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis of research examining domestic violence and abuse among older adults. Rather than limiting the review to intimate partner violence (violence between partners in a relationship), they included abuse by intimate partners, adult children, and other family members when the abuse occurred in a domestic setting.
The researchers searched six major databases through February 2026 and identified 29 qualitative studies meeting their criteria. They examined survivors’ help-seeking and coping alongside professional and organizational responses to abuse.
Because this was a synthesis of qualitative research, its purpose was not to estimate how frequently particular experiences occur. Instead, it identified recurring patterns across studies that help explain how older adults experience and respond to abuse and what they perceive as helpful when interacting with others.
Research Findings
Four major themes emerged across the studies:
- Disclosure and help-seeking were shaped by multiple, overlapping barriers.
- Fear, stigma, dependency, and generational expectations could all make disclosure more difficult. The researchers describe these mutually reinforcing barriers as an “ecology of silence.”
- Trust and validation mattered when it came to disclosure.
- Older adults described helpful responses as those in which they felt believed, respected, and supported rather than dismissed or judged.
- Accessibility mattered alongside availability.
- Having a service technically available does not necessarily mean an older adult can safely or realistically use it. The review points to the importance of support that accounts for older adults’ particular relational, social, and structural circumstances.
- Professional and organizational responses shaped survivors’ experiences.
- Across the literature, training, screening, supportive professional responses, and multidisciplinary collaboration emerged as important components of responding to abuse.
- Coping was complex and nonlinear.
- Some strategies helped survivors preserve psychological wellbeing or navigate immediate circumstances while potentially prolonging exposure to abuse. The researchers call this the “coping paradox,” underscoring why a survivor’s response may make sense within circumstances that are not immediately visible to professionals.
Why Does This Matter for Kansas Providers?
For aging-services professionals, perhaps the most important takeaway is that silence should not be mistaken for absence of abuse—or willingness to remain in an abusive situation.
Older adults may be navigating competing needs for safety, autonomy, family connection, housing, financial security, caregiving, and independence. Abuse may also occur within relationships aging-services professionals do not immediately recognize through a traditional intimate-partner-violence lens, including relationships with adult children and other family members.
That makes aging-services organizations an important part of the response landscape.
Staff may encounter older adults during routine care, service coordination, home visits, care planning, family interactions, or transitions between settings. The research suggests that what happens within those interactions matters. A response characterized by disbelief, judgment, inaccessible options, or failure to recognize the complexity of the person’s circumstances may reinforce silence. A response experienced as validating, trustworthy, accessible, and respectful of autonomy may create a different opportunity.
The review also cautions against treating domestic violence in later life as solely an individual problem. The authors emphasize person-centered, trauma-informed, and age-sensitive responses alongside trained professionals and multidisciplinary collaboration.
For Kansas providers, particularly those serving rural communities where specialized domestic-violence and aging resources may be geographically separated, that raises an organizational question: If an older adult disclosed abuse to someone in our organization tomorrow, how prepared would we be to respond?
What Can You Do?
- Examine how your organization responds to disclosure. Consider whether existing procedures support validation, autonomy, safety, and access to assistance rather than focusing only on identifying abuse.
- Broaden conversations about who may cause harm. The research included intimate partners, adult children, and other family members. Training and organizational discussions should recognize those different relationship dynamics.
- Look beyond apparent reluctance to seek help. Fear, stigma, dependency, relationships, and structural barriers may shape what options actually feel possible to an older adult.
- Assess accessibility, not simply availability. Ask whether older adults can realistically and safely reach the services to which your organization refers them.
- Know your collaborative response. The review identifies multidisciplinary collaboration as an important component of professional responses. Consider whether staff know who to involve—and what role your organization plays—when concerns arise.
Domestic violence and abuse in later life is not simply domestic violence occurring at an older age. The relationships, dependencies, identities, and systems surrounding an older survivor can fundamentally shape both the experience of abuse and the possibilities for seeking help.
Understanding that complexity may be one of the most important places for aging-services providers to begin.
If you, your staff, your resident’s, or loved ones are experiencing domestic violence call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text BEGIN to 88788.
Read the research: Falahi, B., Naeimi, S., Pashmforosh, M., et al. (2026). Understanding responses to domestic violence and abuse among older adults: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of stakeholder perspectives. BMC Primary Care.
Access: Open Access
Full text: Read the full article in BMC Primary Care
