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Elder Abuse

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Elder abuse is a 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 to an older person.

There are six main type of abuse of the elderly:

1. Physical: e.g. hitting, punching, slapping, burning, pushing, restraining or giving too much medication or the wrong medication
2. Psychological: e.g. shouting, swearing, frightening, blaming, ignoring or humiliating a person, also common is threatening to place the person in a nursing home even though the person's physical or mental condition may not require such
3. Financial: e.g. illegal or unauthorised use of a person’s property, money, pension book or other valuables (including changing the person's will to name the abuser as heir), often fraudulently obtaining Power of Attorney, followed by deprivation of money or other property, or by eviction from own home.
4. Sexual: e.g. forcing a person to take part in any sexual activity without his or her consent
5. Neglect: e.g. where a person is deprived of food, heat, clothing or comfort or essential medication
6. Rights abuse, by denying the civil and constitutional rights of people who are old, but not declared by court to be mentally incapable.

Perpetrators of this type of abuse can include anyone in a position of control or authority, whether that is within a family or institutional situation. This can include a partner, child or other relation, a friend or neighbour, volunteer worker, or a health, social care or other worker. A typical example is administering medication by force, practiced in many nursing homes. In one such case nurses were laughing that it took five of them to subdue a little old woman for an injection she had not wanted.

Within the issue of elder abuse there is a hidden fact, that approximately 60% of elder abuse is towards women and that domestic violence in later life may be a continuation of long term partner abuse, or it may begin with retirement or the onset of a health condition.

National reported cases of elder abuse indicated that about 2/3 of the victims are women, 1/3 male.

From Wikipedia