노인복지법상 노인학대 신고의무제의 주요쟁점 고찰

Although mandatory reporting is a newly established policy intervention to address elder abuse, little research addresses factors promoting or inhibiting reporting. The extent to which the reporting process may actually discourage reporting is also understudied. The purpose of this study is to place mandatory reporting of elder abuse within its wider scholarly context and discuss major issues by way of reviewing relevant literature. The results indicate that: potential benefits of mandatory reporting laws include protecting the elder and removing from mandated reporters the responsibility of deciding whether to report suspected incidents; potential disadvantages, however, are that mandatory reporting may put abused elders at increased risk, diminish patient autonomy, and compromise worker-client confidentiality. It is concluded that, although reporting of elder abuse has increased over recent years, there are still problems relating to the protection of vulnerable elderly people. A number of recommendations are made.