Professor Des O'Neill said, however, that the real numbers may be even higher because of a lack of investigation into elder abuse in institutional care.

And the Tallaght Hospital geriatrician -- who inquired into abuses at the former north Dublin nursing home -- also cautioned that as the population ages the number of people at risk of, and suffering from, abuse will increase.

"Urgent action is required to remedy a vacuum in prevention, assessment and management services for elder abuse," he added.

Two pilot studies in the south and south west set up by a Government working group on elder abuse showed that, over six months, the main types of reported abuse were psychological, financial and physical.

"Over the six months of the project, the caseworkers dealt with 53 enquiries in total and considered elder abuse to be present in the case of 34 older people (27 women, seven men)," he wrote in the 'Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect'.

"The alleged perpetrators mostly involved close family members as opposed to people unknown to the victim."

Commenting on the measures needed to help victims, Prof O'Neill and his colleague Clodagh O'Dwyer pointed to the wide-ranging recommendations made by the working group on elder abuse.

It showed there is currently no legal protection of individuals who report concerns about possible abuse in good faith.

And there needs to be provision to allow banks permission to contact a named person if there is suspicion of financial abuse relating to an older customer's account.

Recommendations

He said there has been some progress with implementation of the group's many recommendations, although at a much slower pace than anticipated.

But there remains concern that recommendations which relate to the areas outside of the health service such as the Departments of Social and Family Affairs and Justice and Law Reform have not yet been implemented.

He also said that although the report on the Leas Cross nursing home was accepted by the Department of Health and HSE it remains to be seen to what extent and how quickly the recommendations will be implemented.