Troubling Issue of Elder Abuse & Neglect
Recent research by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) reveals that one in ten Americans over the age of 60 have experienced physical abuse or neglect. Thesis: Family members and others should be alert to incidents of abuse against older people and should report those incidents to the proper authorities so that justice can be served and elderly people can be protected from harm.
Official attempts to solve the problem of elder abuse date back a few years
Evidence that this is not a new problem, or just now recognized, can be found in the Report from the Secretary's Task Force on Elder Abuse, prepared in 1992. The document is loaded with bureaucratic language that encourages the Department of Health & Human Services to develop and fund a "data collection strategy"; develop a "training program"; target public education activities; conduct "workshops"; prepare reports, etc. (HHS). Even if all the recommendations in this document had been followed point by point, there is no doubt there would still be one in ten or more elderly people being abused. The point of this paragraph is that taking action on a family, personal level against abuse of older people is far more relevant than governmental guidelines and task forces, in terms of solving this growing problem.
Responding and intervening in elder abuse
Elder abuse exists in every country in the world, according to Bridget Penhale writing in the peer-reviewed journal Ageing International. The neglect of older people is reflected in literature through the ages, including Shakespeare's King Lear (an older father is engaged in a dysfunctional relationship with his daughters), however the seriousness of the problem has only been discussed in the last twenty to thirty years (Penhale, 2010). Elder mistreatment issues have been "very much a taboo topic until comparatively recently," Penhale explains (236).
There are several levels during which abuse and general mistreatment can occur, according to Penhale's research. They can happen at the individual level (micro: one-on-one interactions between family members); at the community level (meso: someone unrelated to the family harms an older person); and at societal levels (macro: discrimination or neglect on the part of a nursing home or other facility) (Penhale, 237). Moreover, there are various locations and settings where abuse may take place; it may happen in a home, or in an institutional setting.
There are three theories that attempt to explain physical violence within families: a) intra-individual theories (the use of alcohol / drugs or "flawed characteristics" of family members); b) social psychological theories (the study of interactions between people; social learning theory, Exchange theory, et al.); and c) Socio-cultural theories (emphasis of social structures with the "development of violence" (Penhale, 238).
Professionals need to be prepared
The National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) reports that in 2009 some 2.16 million older persons were being abused, albeit estimates show that for every one case of elder abuse that is reported, " ... four go unreported" (Vandsburger, et al., 2012). Hence, because by 2050 about 20% of the U.S. population will be over 65 years of age, the abuse issue is a very serious social problem in America. A culture-specific examination of elder abuse shows that it is not well understood " ... within most cultures"; and it is defined differently across the world and the literature on how professionals should be prepared to intervene in elder abuse "is scarce and largely based in medical fields," Vandsburger explains on page 359.
Meanwhile, 44 professionals who work with older people studied the best ways to approach elder abuse. The overall implications of this research showed that there is a " ... strong need and desire for more community-based educational and training" for healthcare and social service professionals that work with older adults (Vandsburger, 370). In addition, the research showed that more work needs to be done in order to correctly define what exactly constitutes abuse; there needs to be an expansion of "informal and formal educational opportunities" for people in the field and those wishing to be part of the field (Vandsburger, 370).
Self-neglect is also a form of elder abuse
Older people can become involved in self-neglect by being inattentive to personal hygiene or cleanliness in their own homes or environments, according to Eloise Rathbone-McCuan writing in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Society on Aging. Older people can also become neglectful of their own health when they are abused or exploited; and the neglect they bring on themselves can occur in hospitals and long-term-care facilities albeit it usually happens when an older person lives alone.
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