Case Study

Choosing a long-term care facility can be very difficult because of incidents of abuse and/or neglect reported against care facilities can be overwhelming. For example in “Ending Elder Abuse: A family guide”, Diane Sandell lists many elder abuse incidents from her files such as: neglect of decubitis ulcers led to infection, sepsis, gangrene, and death. Facility failed to provide necessary diabetic diet; improper insulin administration, insulin overdose; dehydration and death. Resident left alone in chair in shower room fell, became paralyzed from neck down. Many reports of pinching, rough handling, slapping, yelling, threats (2000). It is believed that abuse is most likely to occur if the caregiver not only finds the work difficult but also (1) works full time, (2) cares for young children, (3) is poor, (4) feels little affection for the older person, (5) finds the elderly person very difficult, and (6) gets no support or help from others (Macionis, 2005). Although there is no excuse for abusing elderly Americans, it is still very prominent in today’s society. Diane Sandell explains in Ending Elder Abuse, that her 91 year old mother was beaten by a long-term care facility employee in the middle of the night for reasons unknown. It is stated that her mother died 6 weeks after the incident, unable to recover mentally from the abuse (2000).

Elder abuse includes physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as well as neglect, exploitation and abandonment of our older generation (Falk, 2012). The people that cause these injuries include the elderly person’s own family and staff members of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, medical rehabilitation facilities and hospitals (NCOA, 2017). There is approximately 1 in 10 older adults that have experienced some type of elder abuse in the United States (NCOA, 2017). Within these staggering numbers, only 1

Every elderly deserved the right to be treated with respect and protect from all type of abuse (American Psychological Association, 2006; Lee, 2007). Significant progress have been made in the past five years toward eliminating violence against older adults. However, the lack of knowledge and clinical skills in health care provider

There are have been many cases of nursing home and elder abuse nation wide and all around the world. One case that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland that involved a man who worked in a long term care facility and hit one of his residents.(Lee, 2013) This resident was an 84 year old man. This man was only caught

In this essay I will be assessing the possible immediate effects of two different forms of abuse on the health and wellbeing of adults by using the case studies of Serinda and the one for the residential care home, Ash court. In the case study of Serinda I will be evaluating how she was affected by domestic abuse as she had been a victim through the hands of her husband who broke her arms twice, fractured her pelvis and burnt her with a cigarette. She had also been disowned by her family and was endangered by her brother-in-law who had threatened to kill her. Also, I will evaluate the physical and emotional abuse that an elderly care home resident whom is a sufferer of dementia was exposed to after being smacked in

The Ontario Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse states that 10% of older adults are abused in some way; which is over 160,000 people in Ontario. Elderly abuse is categorized as the violence, mistreatment or neglect of an elderly person by caregivers, service providers, family, or even strangers (Canadian Government). A senior citizen can be abused physically, financially, psychologically, and rarely, sexually. The mistreatment is usually because of the influence a caregiver has over an older adult. The abuse on the elderly can happen in long term care facilities or in the home; it usually goes unnoticed and unreported (Elder Abuse and Neglect). The concern of abuse on the elderly population is a growing issue due to the increasing populace of older people and baby boomers; physical, financial, and emotional abuse are the most common forms. The problem needs to be taken more seriously, the types of abuse may vary, but regardless of the form, abuse among the elderly needs to end.

While writing this essay, I have analyzed the strengths and limitations of the policies for the elderly. When I read different articles for writing this essay, I understood that elder abuse in Canada is not considered as a common issue rather ageism is considered as structural violence (Banerjee, Daly, Armstrong, Szebehely, Armstrong & Lafrance, 2012). Also, I understood that the very old with limited or no functional capacity, the poor and women are more vulnerable to ageism and this issue remains as unrecognized and untouched (Donovan & Regehr, 2010)

Some of the reasons for this may be fear of increased abuse or even simply believing that reporting will not change the situation. Professionals have the dilemma whether or not to say anything because of ignorance of how or what to report which prolongs the neglect and abuse (Brandl et al., 2006). As a healthcare professional, you are mandated to report any abuse you witness. Sadly, elder abuse is a crime that is underreported, and understudied that impact millions of elders (McClennen, J.C.,2010). Seeing firsthand what goes on in a long-term care facility where many of the elderly are virtually helpless, opened my eyes to how immense this issue is in our Country. I realized that if things go unnoticed in care facilities, they will be ignored in domestic setting, assisted living facilities and anywhere else for that matter. There has to be some kind of solution to this

Elder abuse is of growing concern in today’s society; it is the single most unreported cause of abuse. The thesis of this paper is to describe elder abuse, look at why it is becoming such a problem and what is being done to correct it. According to World Health Organization it is estimated that 80 percent of elder abuse is unreported (Daly, Schmeidel & Jogerst, 2012). Elder abuse is a problem not only just in the health care setting but community wide. Patience and having the time to care for the elderly population is becoming more and more of a struggle in that nurses are being continuously bombarded with a larger patient load and a lack of help. In an article by Rosen (2014), it is stated that five

Elder mistreatment is a serious problem in America, yet it often overlooked. Elder abuse is defined as abuse in older adults that includes, but isn’t limited to physical, emotional, financial or sexual abuse. It 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. It is often misunderstood and dismissed as just a family matter when in fact, that is the least common source of cruelty amongst the elders. According to the National council of aging, 1 in 10 Americans aged 60 and older have experienced some form of abuse. Some estimates range as high as 5 million elders who are reportedly abused yearly.

The fourth study utilized the National Ombudsmen Reporting System (NORS) to describe any national trend in the reporting of elder abuse in nursing homes from 2006 to 2013 (Bloemen et al., 2015). This study analyzed reports of 11,749 complaints regarding neglect or abuse reported to ombudsmen (Bloemen et al., 2015). The research method was the NORS database was utilized to describe trends in neglect and abuse complaints reported to the long-term care ombudsmen (Bloemen et al.,

The mistreatment of elders goes unrecognized and unreported ever day. As nurses we are responsible for advocating for our patients. In order to do this we need to know what to look for, and how to take action. In this document I will discuss the types of elder abuse/mistreatment, how to identify the sometimes hidden signs, and how to properly take action against abuse.

Nursing home abuse takes place when nursing assistants, caregivers or employees in a nursing facility intentionally does something that can cause harm to adults who are weak and vulnerable. There are many different forms of nursing home abuse. There are mainly sociological and cultural issues, and most cases of elder abuse are usually caused by several factors. Some of these factors are: quality of the nursing home and its staff, the features and personal issues of family and nursing assistants and caregivers are also fundamental in deciding the essential causes of the abuse. Therefore, social-cultural forces determine how elderly people are cared for and treated by others. By understanding all these different causes that

According to the reading in this week’s content the reflecting incidents of abuse involving elderly residents in senior care homes are staggering and disheartening. This resident on resident abuse is hardly addressed, and state and government agencies have not provided much assistance in trying to prevent it from happening. In the case of the elderly man attacking an elderly woman the facility felt that increasing his meds would solve the issue of his erratic behavior. However, while increasing his medication this might be helpful with a thorough examination the proper response should have been to detain the attacker and call authorities to investigate the situation. The attacker must face the consequences for his actions and his behavior

The author of this article, David McKie a CBC crew member describes the situation of nursing homes in Canada. He talks about abuse from the staff and from the seniors. This article specifically refers to two examples in Canada of this abuse and it also states that about seventy percent of nursing homes are a dumping place for elderly who are “mentally unstable”. McKie states that it is difficult to know exactly what is going on in nursing homes because the staff are aware when a safety check is going to happen and can fix whatever is wrong before this time comes. The CBC crew is still attempting to get more information from nursing homes