Elderly Abuse, Teenage Pregnancy, and Proposed Solutions to These Two Family Problems

Each year, more than 600,000 teens become pregnant, and 3 in 10 will become pregnant before they reach age 20 (Secure et al., 2015). Rates are higher among black and Hispanic teens, with 4 in 10 becoming pregnant by 20 years of age, compared with 2 in 10 white teens (Secure et al., 2015). Even though over time the overall rate of teen pregnancy has decreased, it’s still very high and has a large impact on the teen parents as well as the families.

Although popular opinion sometimes indicates otherwise, according to a statistical analysis from the US Department of Health and Services (2014), teen pregnancy rates have been steadily declining for the past twenty years. In America, most teenagers are not yet fully independent

Teen pregnancy is still a major issue regardless of the declining pregnancy rate. In 2006 birthrates among teenage girls age ranging from 15-17 were more than 3 times as high as

This essay will examine elder abuse and its role in our society. The definition of elder abuse and the different types of elder abuse will be examined. Additionally, literature that highlight legislative changes to current elder abuse laws and the origins of those laws will be examined. The paper will also discuss national reports of elder abuse statistics and the current status of elder abuse. Finally, recommendations based upon the information researched will be provided as a guide for the future.

Elder abuse has a long standing history dating back before the 1960’s, “it is only in recent decades that elder abuse as a social policy issue has moved to the forefront of health care and social services in the United States” (Falk, Baigis, & Kopac, 2012). In March of 2010, as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; The Elder Justice Act, first introduced in 2003, was signed into law. The Elder Justice Act provides federal resources to “prevent, detect, treat, intervene in, and prosecute elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation and to protect elders with diminished capacity while maximizing their

Abuse can happen to anyone, but elderly adults residing in nursing homes are more vulnerable and have a higher risk for abuse (Rasansky Law Firm, 2006, para. 1). Elders are among the fastest growing in the population, and because of this many more elderly

With medical and technological advances, the United State’s life expectancy continues to increase, leading to an improved number of elderly individuals. As a nursing student, who worked at a nursing home for three years in high school, I am quite familiar with elderly abuse, especially institutional abuse. Prior to this discussion post, I persisted more familiar with the types of elderly abuse, rather than the incidence rates within the United States. To clarify this discussion post, elderly abuse stands defined as, “an intentional act, or failure to act, by a caregiver or another person in a relationship involving an expectation of trust that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). The risk of harm to an older adult subsisted evident in an institutional setting, from my work experience. While I cannot disclose that the nurses physically, sexually, or financially abused the residents, I am aware of the neglect and emotional abuse the occurred in this setting. The abuse that occurs to elderly individuals stems for two triggers – caregiver stress and the vulnerability of the elder. According to the textbook, “Exhaustion and anger can reach a boiling point and can create intergenerational conflicts” (Olson, DeFrain, & Skogrand, 2014, p. 383). When caregivers acquire stress, they tend to take out their aggression on the elder, intentionally or unintentionally, as they remain overwhelmed with emotions. Personally, I

Scheidet, R.A. (2003). Improving Student Achievement by Infusing a Web-Based Curriculum into Global History. Journal Of Research on Technology in Education. International Society for Technology in Education, 36(1), 77-94. Retrieved from: Ashford University Library

There is a lack of national guidelines for describing abuse, myriad uncoordinated state and local laws for reporting and intervening in abusive situations and poor education, training, and support for professional service workers, family caregivers and community volunteers (Rosen, 2014). Reporting elder abuse is a growing problem due to the lack of education of what elder abuse really is also of the signs and how to report it. In the article by Blancato, forty-four states, Indiana included have required health care workers by law to report elder abuse, while in the other six states health care workers are not obligated to do so.

Abuse of the elderly is a common issue, but the aging adults are protected by a federal law known as the “Elder Justice Act”. According to Hillier and Barrow (2011), between 3 percent and 6 percent of people over the age of 65 report being abused. However, elderly abuse is usually not reported, because the abuser is typically a family member. So, the abuse adult will not report the abuse because they are afraid of making the abuser angrier or being isolated (Hillier & Barrow, 2011, p. 328). According to the department of health and human services “The “Elder Justice Act” is the first comprehensive federal legislation to address elder abuse, was signed into law by President Obama in March, 2010 as part of the health care reform act.”

After analysis and interpretation of this article, I believe the primary objective is emphasized to be an overall didactic approach towards influencing the federal government to expand public awareness and thus evoke greater intervention towards creating preventive strategies in elder mistreatment. Overall, the message being portrayed is Americans in general should come to the realization that elder abuse is a systemic, collaborative issue that affects multiple stakeholders. For example, the provoked abuse can lead to nursing home admissions at rates four times faster than the norm rates of non-victims, financial abuse can lead to greater stress and reliance placed on the family, caregivers can overall suffer both physically and mentally from the extensive care needed by the victims, and Medicare (and other programs) will spend more than they already are- on the results of further abuse. From knowing the latter, the proposal includes a federal strategy to acknowledge the overall abuse by directing the president to encourage both private and public sectors to get involved in action and policy specifically targeting the financial exploitation of elders. Nevertheless, not only do financial domains need to be investigated, but overall all aspects of elder abuse; thus, the plan is set out to provoke- as mentioned in the former, overall public awareness which can cause a greater change. This is said to be done by encouraging the new president, Trump, to talk and

1. In the study conducted by Sedgh and co-researchers (2015) of the Guttmacher Institute in New York, among 21 countries with teen pregnancy estimates for 2008–2011, the pregnancy rate was the highest in the United States with 57 pregnancies per 1,000 adolescents in 2010.

Allowing teenagers to get contraceptives without parents’ permission encourages them to become sexually active. Teenagers do not become sexually active because they can get contraceptives. Young woman in the U.S. Have been sexually active for at least 22 months before they visit a family planning provider. 47 percent sexually active teenage girls said they would not get health services from clinics if they could not get contraceptives without parent’s permission. Teenage girls have the highest reported rates of chlamydia and other diseases. Close to 900,000 teenagers get pregnant each year. Four out of ten girls get pregnant at least once before they turn twenty. Teenage girls that do not use contraception has a 90 percent chance of getting pregnant within a year.

"Over one million teenage girls become pregnant each year. In the next 24 hours, about 3,312 girls will become pregnant. In addition, 43% of all adolescents become pregnant before the age of 20. These are incredible statistics when you consider that there are only 31 million females. The United States has the highest adolescent pregnancy rate in the developed world. As statistics show one in nine women between the ages of 15 through 19 become pregnant each year. Also, every 26 seconds a teenage girl becomes pregnant and every 56 seconds a child of a teenage mother is born."

The teen pregnancy rate had decreased by the maximum of about 55 percent. Most teen birth rates had also gone down about 64 percent, but yet teen pregnancies and birth rate for teenagers ages 15-19 in the U.S still remains one of the highest comparable countries. Due to parenthood, most of teen moms drop out of school. More than 50% of teen mothers never graduate to get their diploma. Sexually active teens that don’t use any type of protection has a 90 percent chance of becoming pregnant within a year, 84 percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned.