Utah ranked last in a recent analysis of elder-abuse protections conducted by personal finance website WalletHub.com.
The Beehive State placed 51st in the analysis, trailing all other states and the District of Columbia.
“By one estimate, elder abuse affects as much as 10% of the population older than 60, and many cases go unreported,” according to WalletHub.com.
The analysis compared states (and D.C.) on 16 key indicators of elder-abuse protection, grouped into three categories:
• “Prevalence,” including share of elder-abuse, gross-neglect and exploitation complaints, estimated elder fraud rate, and elder fraud loss amount. Utah ranked 50th.
• “Resources,” including expenditures on elder-abuse prevention, legal assistance development and long term ombudsman programs. Utah ranked 37th.
• “Protections,” including financial elderly abuse laws, eldercare organizations and services, elder-abuse forensic centers, shelters, working groups and volunteers, frequency of assisted-living facilities inspections, quality of nursing homes, and laws allowing surveillance cameras in nursing homes. Utah ranked 26th.
States with the best elder-abuse protections
1. Wisconsin
2. Massachusetts
3. Vermont
4. Virginia
5. West Virginia
6. Washington
7. Iowa
8. Maine
9. Wyoming
10. North Carolina
States with the worst elder-abuse protections
42. New Mexico
43. Nebraska
44. Nevada
45. Tennessee
46. South Dakota
47. New Jersey
48. California
49. South Carolina
50. Montana
51. Utah
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