“Well-kept Family Secret – Elder Abuse” is a publication developed through many years of cooperation between the Red Cross of Serbia, Serbian Commissioner for Protection of Equality and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It is a result of efforts to make elder abuse – still a well-kept family secret – visible and to offer solutions that will support older persons to live in dignity, free of fear and shame, in safe and secure family environment.

The publication has two parts. In the first part the authors define elder abuse and describe its types as well as the indicators of abuse. This part also describes the abusers, risk factors, prevention and intervention and provides data on frequency of elder abuse as well as the description of the legal framework.

The second part of the publication provides the results of the research implemented in August and September 2015 via telephone poll with 800 persons over 65 across the Serbian territory. The objective of this research activity was to establish the frequency of elder abuse and its specific types. The data shows that 19.8% of older persons survived some of the types of abuse in their older age and 11% of them were targeted by one of the five types of elder abuse in the last year.