Elder Abuse

1. State of the Problem – Elder Abuse in our country is growing in America. All people have the right to live their lives without abuse, neglects, and being exploitations. It should not matter how old we are everyone has value. The 2004 Survey of State Adult Protective Services, found the following: that a 19.7 percent increase from 2000 – 2004 in the combined total of reports of elder and vulnerable adult abuse and there was a 15.6 percent increase from 2000 – 2004 in substantiated cases; and the abuse occurred more than two in five victims which is (42.8%) were age 80 or older; Most alleged perpetrators in 2003 were adult children (32.6%) or other family members (21.5%), and spouses/intimate partners accounted for 11.3% of the total. www.ncea.aoa.gov . The estimate of abuse is between 1 and 2 million Americans age 65or older have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care or protection’. (www.ncea.aoa.gov) These numbers may be low because the elder may not report any complicate due to fear. Abusers of older adults are both females and males. Usually family members are often the abusers in the domestic surrounding. Researcher estimated two-thirds of all elder abuse are family members, and most often the victim’s adult child or spouse. ‘Research has shown that the abusers in many instances are financially dependent on the elder’s resources and have problems related to alcohol and drugs’. (www.ncea.aoa.gov) The main elder abuse occurs in long-term care home. There are seven major types of elder abuse.
Physical, sexual, emotional, neglect, abandonment, financial or material exploitation, and self-neglecting are the major types of elder abuse. Physical abuse is defined when physical force is use on elder, which could result in bodily injury, or physical pain 9www.ncea.aoa.gov. Physical abuse consists of striking, hitting, beating, pushing, shoving, shaking, slapping, kicking, pinching, and burning an elder. If an