Refining elder protection in Taiwan: from legal protection orders to a specialized Adult Protective Services (APS)...

Taiwan's protection orders often fail to adequately protect the elderly because the existing legal framework, primarily designed to address intimate partner violence, overlooks caregiving dependencies. A major systemic barrier is that Taiwan's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Centers (DVSCs), the primary local agencies responsible for coordinating elder abuse reports, lack the specialized expertise in elder abuse assessment, cognitive impairment, decision-making capacity, financial exploitation, and multidisciplinary safeguarding found in international Adult Protective Services (APS) models, as resources are predominantly focused on women and children. This gap results in professional shortcomings and petition withdrawal. This commentary advocates a specialized elder safeguarding system. Key recommendations include empowering social workers as third-party petitioners, establishing dedicated elder protection units within DVSCs, and integrating legal mechanisms with long-term care services to promote a proactive, multidisciplinary elder protection framework.