Mary Quinn Elder Abuse

Mary Quinn discussed the role of being a caregiver in her article “Elder Abuse Is Caused by the Stress on the Caregiver” and established two points of why elders are abused rather than receive quality care. The first point is that increased stress is primarily what a caretaker is receiving while taking care of an elder. Second, the point was made that due to all these stresses, they may lead to elder abuse. The paper established the different types of stress that the caretaker can suffer and goes on how those factors can make someone feel. Once a reader had taken a look at the entire article, they could see the organization of thoughts discussed the paper in such a way where she could expound upon stress factors that cause elder abuse. However,
First off, Quinn never really proved through clinical studies nor through interviews that stress is a primary factor in elder abuse. At one point, mid way through her paper, she suggested that a caretaker may physically discipline an elder (assumed to be abuse) because it gives them a sense of control but this is neither inherently stress related nor even proved to be prevalent. Other than this one instance, she never attempted to prove that stress causes abuse. She simply asserted stress causes abuse and continues to move on with her points. She later went on to address each stress factor she believed was possibly causing problems to the caretaker. In each factor, she tried to rationalize why each variable causes stress but she never really was able to cite specific sources (though she did reference a few general sources) of information to support her deductions. The reader can follow her line of logic of why each factor can cause emotional distress but they don’t really create a wholesome understanding of the issue. For example, Quinn stated that sibling rivalry can flare up when the care of the elder is at stake. She said that the “child doing the work” receives complaints from other siblings or the elder, causing the pressure on caretaker. However, Quinn never stated specifically how prevalent sibling rivalry is (nor did she prove that it happens at all) so someone may not really feel the need to address the issue nation wide if they don’t even know how common it it. Throughout reading the paper, no one could find the answers to questions like “how prevalent are these stress factors?”, “do they cause widespread elder abuse frequently or does it happen rarely”, “How specifically does stress cause a caretaker to abuse someone and how is it carried out” or even “what is considered elder