A Discussion on The Issues of Elder Abuse and Prevention

Introduction

Today, abuse of elderly adults is very rampant which always happens in their homes, in relatives’ homes, and may also happen in the care facilities expected to take good care of them. Most of the elderly population include the frail, older and vulnerable and cannot help themselves instead depend on others to provide for them their basic needs (Anetzberger, 2012 p.13). Apart from abuse, elderly are also exposed to negligence from their family members, caregivers, friends, etc. Laws have been approved in all the 50 states that prevent elderly abuse, and vary from state to state but broadly abuse is defined, and it may include: Physical abuse which is involves imposing pain on an older person via bruising, slapping, etc., sexual abuse, neglect, exploitation, abandonment, self-neglect, and emotional abuse (Anetzberger, 2012 p.14).

This paper is going to provide a clear elaboration of the various forms of elderly abuse and neglect and its causes. It is also going to review the existing literature based on elderly abuse within the society or the nation (Kosberg, 2013 n.p). The study is based on peer-reviewed sources and other journals that provide significant information about the abuse other elderly. The sources that are going to be use in this paper is multidisciplinary in that, it encompasses all aspects of life such as, financial, social, psychological, physical or sexual in nature. The abuse or negligence of the elder is always considered as intentionally or unintentionally. Based on existing research, we can see that elderly abuse often occur where the senior lives, that is, where abusers mostly are spouses or partners of elders, adult children, or any other family member for instance grandchildren (Anetzberger, 2012 p.13).

The scope of abuse of elderly has attracted a lot of researchers and speculations ever since that problem was acknowledged more than half a century ago. Reports from earlier surveys indicate that elderly abuse was commonly practiced. It is evident from the fact that four-thirds of health care homes personnel witnessed either psychological or physical abuse induced to an elderly and also two-thirds of them has ever participated in elderly abuse act. From the reviewed literature on elderly abuse, it is deduced that 80 percent of the investigations explore elderly abuse in domestic setting or within the community and 20 percent mainly focuses on the elderly abuse in residential care facilities that is in nursing homes. The studies are evenly distributed on the basis of surveying older adults within a nation and the use of clinical samples of the elderly who reside in health care homes or social service context.

Community Assessment

For an effective community response, responding to elderly abuse will involve several stakeholders working in collaboration, and each group develops its distinctive strengths for a general purpose (McGarry, 2012 p. 14). The aim with this community kit is the come up with the general list of considerations in putting together a collaborative approach. Based on the fact that communities are diverse, thus their responses will always be unique in that it reflects the uniqueness of every community and its respective assets. The primary objective of collaborative approaches of community is to reduce the resource disparities among the residents irrespective of their age. The community ensures that the needs of the older adults are central to all planning and delivery services. Community commences community dialogs that increase awareness concerning the elderly abuse, how to identify abuse, and reporting any incidences of elderly abuse and neglect to the authorities (McGarry, 2012 p. 17).

Communities strive to support training for services providers at care home for the older adults. Caregivers from different disciplines, job settings, and background are sensitive to abuse issues thus able to identify abuse and neglect (Maurer, 2012 n.p). It then enables them to handle the cases effectively and make referrals to the appropriate agencies. All sectors in the community have come together to centralize efforts, address, explore and understand the issues relating to elderly abuse thus enabling them to identify gaps and take necessary measures to attend to them. Also, some sectors in the community are coming up with agencies that ensure that family violence that may directly affect the elderly individuals is avoided at all costs (Anetzberger, 2012 p.12).

Conclusion

For the issues mentioned above relating to elderly abuse, we deduce that, elderly abuse is a widespread problem that stretches to various disciplines in all aspects of life and is always perpetrated in one way or another. Critical care service providers are always aware of elderly abuse and to some extent logically evaluate the elderly individuals for abuse at admission to their units (Anetzberger, 2012 p.13). They identify signs and symptoms of abuse in the abused elderly adult and are also aware of the reason to which older persons do not want to report abuse and usually considers it when soliciting information. Therefore, encouraging the inclusion of elderly abuse reporting systems and exploration in unit protocol and procedures is necessary for providing quality of care (Kosberg, 2013 n.p).

There is an immense progress in attractive the federal response to elder abuse. There is a landmark law on elder justice that has been enacted and implemented which ensures that there is a fair and just judgment based on elderly abuse such as financial abuse etc. elder justice provide a room for both educated and motivated individuals to seek expanded policies and practices that will boost elder justice and thwart elder abuse in America (Herzog, 1991 n.p). Training and education are believed to be the better mechanism of preventing elderly adult abuse and neglect. It is achieved by educating the caregivers and the entire community about the signs and symptoms of abuse and neglect in order to enable them recognize such incidences and report to the authorities which also apply to elder people. Training is provided to equip care providers with the adequate knowledge, skills and qualifications for handling the elderly and frail individuals without any hurdles that may necessitate abuse and neglect (Herzog, 1991 n.p).