Abuse of the Elderly 1 Running head: ELDERLY ABUSE The Background of Elderly Abuse Shayla D. Green Wayne County Community College Abuse of the Elderly 2 Abstract Elder abuse is defined as intentional actions that cause harm or create a serious risk of harm to an elder person There are many different forms of elder abuse that exist, including, physical, sexual, psychological, financial and neglect. Abuse of the Elderly 3 The Background of Elderly Abuse In today's society, abuse is something that affects the lives of many individuals, whether they experience it first hand or not. According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary (2009), abuse is defined as improper or excessive use or treatment. When
Safeguarding of vulnerable adults is the process of informing the relevant authority such as police and health officials' cases of abuse to the elderly citizens. A vulnerable adult is a person, who is or may be in need of community care services on the basis of mental or other disability, age or poor health. Vulnerable adults are adults who for various reasons can be more at risk of being abused, or are at risk of putting themself in danger. Either financially, sexually, physically, mentally, by neglect etc. Some things that make people vulnerable can be physical illnesses, physical disability (such as being unable to move, so unable to escape), inability to communicate, mental illness, learning disability, loss of a sense (hearing impairment or visual impairment).
This article, “Helping Abuse Victims”, outlines what we as healthcare professionals can do to help individual’s who may be trapped in an abusive situation with what types of things to look for when you suspect abuse, interviewing tips, and the importance of documentation. “Domestic violence occurs in all socioeconomic groups, although low income is a risk factor, along with
Jonathan Kent Perspective on aging Jonathan Kent Perspective on aging Stereotype is defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. The aging community is being stereotyped everyday whether it is positive or negative. The aging community is being stereotyped on social media, print Medias, and electronic Medias. Studies show that women are being underrepresented more than men. The aging population is being portrayed in the media in a positive way but most certainly in a negative way.
This leads to an ethical issue amongst those who treat elderly adults as to when they are not able to give legal consent for treatment. Are they able to give informed consent when they may forget that they ever spoke with you to begin with? As with any client you must give them time to ask questions and make sure they understand their treatment. In some cases a guardian is put into place to protect the client in both medical and financial issues. In this case any treatment or change in treatment would go through the guardian for the informed consent process.
It is the responsibility of that individual to act on any suspicion, evidence of abuse or neglect by raising an alarm and incident report. Social services departments are the main agency responsible for coordinating responses to cases of alleged or suspected abuse, and working with the Police during investigations. Current legislation is in place to protect vulnerable adults for example CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) is responsible for the disclosure of criminal records and the Independent Safeguarding Authority is accountable for the barring of people who are considered to pose a risk to vulnerable adults and children. CRB is a useful legal document for employers. Based on a CRB the employer can then reject an application if they feel the applicant poses a great risk to their service users.
1.1 Analyse the differences between the concept of safeguarding and the concept of protection in relation to vulnerable adults Under the Health and Social Care Act (2008), abuse is defined as: “Single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress including physical, emotional, verbal, financial, sexual, racial abuse, neglect and abuse through misapplication of drugs.” Abuse can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. However, it is so alarming that more and more elderly people suffer from abuse on a daily basis. Many elderly adults are being abused in their own homes and even in care facilities such as nursing homes responsible for their care. How can elderly groups be vulnerable to abuse and/or harm to self and others? And how do care services providers that are supposed to deliver utmost care and support become one of the major contributing factors of abuse.
Ageism is the act of people discriminating against others just because of their age. Most of the time people think ageism is just against the elderly. However, it can also be against young people as well. Basically you can be too old or young us some people's eyes. Ageism influences the presence of diversity in society by keeping the older people out of the workforce.
Often clients and their family, seek help from providers that are not qualified or lack the experience to be effective in dual diagnoses. The client’s family and the client should be carefully interviewed by the dual diagnoses team. The more information about the client could be helpful in determining what types of drugs the client used. This initial assessment is critical; this information will reveal underlying issues that may have been over looked by the previous providers. Chemical dependency, which includes illegal narcotics, alcohol, and drugs prescribed by doctors, can be disguised as symptoms of mental illness.
With the many different problems and challenges that the elderly are facing today, along with the practice of excluding the elderly from the rest of society, it is no wonder that they are having alcohol and substance abuse issues. The issue of alcoholism and substance abuse is also allowing us a view of a society that has placed a lot of importance on “the quick fix”, some things take time, effort, and sacrifice and to employ any other method is to send an invitation to mayhem. The seniors of today are suffering as a result there being too many that are unwilling to make the unselfish sacrifices necessary to address this issue, our seniors are indeed at risk. Older adults also face the risk of misusing over-the-counter and prescription medications, the most frequent form of substance abuse problems among the elderly, and combined difficulties with alcohol and medication misuse may affect up to 19 percent of older Americans (Bartels, Blow, Brockmann, & Van Citters,