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How To Achieve Abuse In Nursing Homes

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Hazel is a senior citizen who lives in an assisted living facility. Recently, her hand-eye coordination has made it difficult for her to feed herself. Her assisted living facility’s occupational therapist gives her a device that will strap her utensils to her wrist to make it easier to hold them, and while Hazel is grateful for the device she having difficulty using it. In response to her problems, her therapist calls her names and is aggressive with her, causing Hazel shame and distress. While this situation is fictional, real senior citizens around the country face mistreatment by staff in nursing home or assisted living settings. The potential for mistreatment and abuse of elders is a major ethical issue in the field of occupational therapy. …show more content…

Many occupational therapists work with elderly people. While various populations of individuals experience abuse, The National Institute on Aging recognizes six different types of abuse inflicted onto elderly people. The first type of abuse recognized is physical abuse, which is described as “bodily harm by hitting, pushing, or slapping”. While this type of abuse is important, it is certainly not the only kind. Emotional or psychological abuse involves verbally degrading, threatening, or yelling at a person, as well as ignoring them. Ignoring the individual could also fall under neglect, which is the next type of abuse listed. Neglect and abandonment go hand-in-hand, with abandonment being the more extreme version of the two. Neglect is ignoring an elderly person’s needs, while abandonment is described as leaving the person alone without planning for their care. The fifth kind of abuse is sexual abuse, in which a person is forced to watch or partake in sexual acts. The final kind of abuse is financial abuse, in which money or items are stolen from the elderly individual (“Elder Abuse”). These six types of abuse each have their own unique ways of affecting elderly individuals, but in the end they are all harmful at best and lethal at …show more content…

Who is at risk? What are the signs of elder abuse? A 2017 study found that over the course of a year, 15.7% of adults over the age of 60 experienced some form of abuse (Yon et al.). Although this is likely underestimated, 15.7% (or 1 in 6) individuals over the age of 60 experiencing abuse is a staggering statistic. Furthermore, The World Health Organization states that 40% of nursing home staff members admitted to psychologically abusing patients, and 10% admitted to physically abusing a patient (“Elder Abuse Fact Sheet”). There are several risk factors for being a victim of elder abuse. The National Center on Elder Abuse says that individuals that are dependent on others to survive, individuals with dementia, women, low-income individuals, and individuals in larger households were all more likely to experience one or more types of elder abuse (“Statistics/Data”). This is not to say that everyone in one of those categories is being abused, but recognizing that these groups are at risk can help is identifying elder abuse. Identifying elder abuse can be difficult depending on the type of abuse. The National Institute on Aging states that abused elders may have trouble sleeping, become depressed, confused, agitated, or violent, become withdrawn and stop participating in activities they normally enjoy, have unexplained bruises or scars, or have an unkempt or messy appearance (“Elder

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