In addition to acute episodic stresses, the elderly experience chronic stresses resulting from economic, attitudinal, role, and physical victimization. For example, limitations on reimbursement may force elderly persons to forego psychiatric care. Empirical data indicate that older persons are stereotyped as frequently by professionals as by other members of the population. Finally, physical victimization by health care workers includes poor treatment, incorrect diagnoses, and inappropriate medication or surgery. Stereotyping often leads to a lack of recognition of the older person's individuality and demeaning behavior by health workers such as patronization, infantilization, and parentification. The health care delivery system creates and perpetuates learned helplessness as a coping mechanism of the victimized elderly through stereotyping the elderly as dependent and incompetent, perceiving interactions with elderly persons as having negative long-term outcomes and high costs, and manipulating rewards for appropriate sick role behavior to reinforce the provider's power. Victimized older persons also experience alienation, anomie, loss of self-esteem, and depression. If older individuals' coping skills are inadequate to handle stresses, psychopathologic symptoms will develop, including panic, phobia, and aggression. Evidence indicates that the victimized elderly cannot successfully cope with chronic abuse. Approximately 90 references are supplied.