Elder Care

Shannon O’Doherty
Professor Bredin
EN101S
November 26, 2012
Understanding the Effects of Elder Abuse When it comes to settling your elders in a nursing home or a at home nursing assistance care, families would want to find the up most care for their loved ones. Nursing homes and home care providers certainly have their function in society – they provide the elderly assistance with their everyday tasks such as cooking, cleaning and shopping. Then when it comes to a point when the elder can no longer care for themselves, they help with feeding, bathing and medication. Unfortunately with nursing homes, you come up against the good and the bad. Not all nursing homes nor home care assistance are perfect. Elder abuse and negligence is in fact a national problem, even the finest facilities and home care services have had bad reports of abuse and neglect. There are many ways of abuse caused in nursing homes or care takers such as, physical injury and suffering, emotional wounds, financial losses and theft, sickness and disease, and premature death. This type of concern makes it a real stressful problem no matter where you send your loved one. When thinking of abuse, whether it is sexual abuse, physical mistreatment, or even rough handling, it can lead to physical injuries and suffering. The effects can show bruising of the body, fractures and dislocations, and even injuries to the head, scalp and face. Statistics show that in 1996, about 551,000 persons ages 60 and older were the victim of elder abuse, abandonment, and/or self neglect in domestic settings. Today, many victims suffer physical injuries. Some are minor like cuts, scrapes, and bruising. Others can be more serious and can cause lasting disabilities and even premature death. These obtain head injuries, broken bones, internal bleeding, and constant physical pain. Elder maltreatment can have emotional effects as well. Victims are often fearful, they tend to develop many problems with trust and having a harder time letting anyone in. The infliction of pain or distress, usually through insults, threats, intimidation, or harassment is a sign of emotional or psychological abuse. Some most common ways of emotional abuse is habitual blaming or scapegoating, this occurs when a victim is being blamed for something they can’t help or control. Many caretakers seem to get frustrated when an elder wets the bed or soils their clothes. The victim will end up being blamed for their uncontrollable mishaps. Elder abuse doesn’t always relate to physical or verbal contact, it can also lead to financial losses and theft. If the abuser is confiscating the elderly person’s money and pocketing it or diverting it into their own bank account- possibly just using it to even purchase themselves things can cause financial problems to the elder’s accounts and estate. In other cases, maybe the caregiver will forge an elder’s signature granting someone approval had no consent of giving. While financial elder abuse can take many forms, the most widespread abuses include telemarketing fraud, identity theft, and predatory lending. One in four elders are at risk of abuse and only a small proportion of this is detected. The effects detected in elderly abuse can be long-term, causing depression, isolation, and well being. The effect of elder abuse also depends how the relationship with the individual causing the abuse opposed to those who can prevent the abuse from occurring.

Works Cited Page http://canhr.org/factsheets/abuse_fs/html/fs_elderabuse.htm http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/main_site/library/Statistics_Research/Research_Reviews/emotional_distress.aspx http://www.ehow.com/facts_5398651_effects-elder-abuse.html http://www.livestrong.com/article/94216-physical-effects-elder-abuse/ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J084v01n01_06#preview http://elderjusticenow.org/about-elder-abuse/facts-about-elder-abuse-in-the-united-states/
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/eldermaltreatment/consequences.html

Cited: Page http://canhr.org/factsheets/abuse_fs/html/fs_elderabuse.htm http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/main_site/library/Statistics_Research/Research_Reviews/emotional_distress.aspx http://www.ehow.com/facts_5398651_effects-elder-abuse.html http://www.livestrong.com/article/94216-physical-effects-elder-abuse/ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J084v01n01_06#preview http://elderjusticenow.org/about-elder-abuse/facts-about-elder-abuse-in-the-united-states/ http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/eldermaltreatment/consequences.html