ATLANTA -- The number of elder-abuse complaints to state investigators has grown 22 percent since 2007, members of a Senate committee heard Tuesday.

The temporary committee is looking into ways the state can curb instances of physical, mental and financial abuse suffered by Georgians.

The complaints rose from 9,000 per year to 11,000 in the most recent fiscal year, according to testimony by Dr. James J. Bulot, director of the Department of Human Services' Division of Aging Services. The rate of abuse isn't necessarily increasing, only the number of seniors as the Baby Boomers get older.

He said most people are wrong in thinking the majority of cases occur in nursing homes.

"That's just what makes the front pages of newspapers when abuse happens in that type of setting," he said. "Ninety-five percent happens at home and in communities: That older person you haven't seen in two or three years, they're not allowed to leave their home any longer, and you thought they had died."

The department has 134 investigators, and the Department of Community Health has another dozen or so to probe allegations within nursing homes, but Bulot said they're not enough.

"The only way for us to tackle it is to raise awareness of what elder abuse is," he said.

The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, scheduled the next meeting for late November with officials from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement witnesses to continue learning about elder abuse. She wrote much of the state's current laws in the area, but she said she's eager to learn ways they can be strengthened.

Several abuse bills are awaiting introduction, she said.

The committee is reviewing multiple topics in preparation for legislation it will consider when the General Assembly convenes in January. The senators also heard about the difficulties providing services to seniors living in rural areas.

The recent clustering of retirees in Atlanta's suburbs, the mountains and along the coast means that the funding and personnel for most programs are concentrated there, adding to the strain of taking care of folks who retire in rural homes. Not only are they more expensive to take care of, rural retirees are also dying at a higher rate than suburbanites in the same age group, according to Dr. Toni Miles, director of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Georgia.

"Something is going on in rural areas that researchers need to look at," she said.