Elder Abuse And Neglect

In nursing homes or in home health care services, elder abuse and neglect is prevalent because it is difficult to recognize. Reports of elder abuse are on the rise and nurses can prevent elder abuse from happening. They are mandated to report to Adult Protective Services and usually frontline staff who will see signs of abuse. Elder abuse is any knowing, intentional, or negligent act by by a caregiver or any other person that causes harm or a serious risk of harm to a vulnerable adult. Neglect is the failure to provide for one’s self the goods or services, including medical services, which are necessary to avoid physical or emotional harm or pain or the failure of a caretaker to provide such goods or services. (Hamp, 2001) The elderly face
They may think it is signs of dementia or signs of the elderly person’s frailty or caregivers may explain them to you that way. In fact, many of the signs and the symptoms of elder abuse do overlap with the symptoms of mental disorientation. If someone suspects mistreatment they should talk with the older patient alone; enlist help from other members of the medical team if needed or try to maintain an objective and supportive demeanor with both patient and caregiver. For every report of abuse 23.5 cases go unreported. In a report from Adult Protective Services, one case in particular took 273 days! The report concluded that the delay was due to DHS waiting for the nursing home to submit a plan of correction before informing the families of the investigation
The resident should be dressed, well groomed, and clean at all times and allowed to have express options, in particular, food, sleeping and waking times.(Paxton, n.d.) Additionally, many older adults eat certain meals for their health and energy and others may only eat once a day and need someone to look after times they eat and what they eat. Many older adults often get less sleep than they need. One reason is that they often have more trouble falling asleep. Reason for that is they often don’t go into deep sleep and wake up throughout the night, which explains why they nap more in the daytime. A study of adults over 65 found that 13 percent of men and 36 percent of women take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep. (“Aging Care”)
How can we prevent elder abuse? Educating people about elder abuse and encourage counseling and treatment to cope with personal and family problems that may contribute to abuse. Another way to prevent elder abuse is to have someone come in and care for the elder a few hours a week; this may in fact relieve caregiver stress. It is important to speak up about suspected abuse and no one should turn their back on an adult who needs help and although many may be terrified to get involve with a situation like it people should know a report can be anonymous and no information can be given