The Serious Problem Of Elder Abuse In America

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

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention standardly defines elder abuse as “any abuse and neglect of persons age 60 or older by a caregiver or another person in a relationship involving an expectation of trust” (CDC, Elder Abuse). It is always thought that the elderly are treated with honor, dignity and respect but many of the elderly have been abused and neglected as much if not worse than the children we spoke of in our previous discussions. Who seriously could hurt these frail people, someone’s grandparents, possibly even your own; persons who because of the aging process have lost their ability to fight back and are being bullied or attacked by someone in a position of trust. It is estimated that 70% to 90% of the perpetrators of elderly

A current ethical issue is elder abuse. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2015) defines mistreatment of the elderly, as “any single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action, occurring in any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or discomfort to an older person.” A distinction of elder abuse compared to domestic violence, sexual assault or fraud is that “elder mistreatment implies that the recipient of the mistreatment is in a situation or condition in which the ability to protect oneself is limited in some way” (Touchy & Jett, 2012, p. 401). Elder abuse represents a serious social problem, which is only on the rise because of the longevity and increased dependence of some elders (Martins, Neto, Andradea, & Albuquerquea, 2014).

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

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.”

There is no uniform definition of elder abuse, which poses numerous challenges for researchers and/or policy makers (Norris et al., 2013). As a result, the theories used to research elder

Elder abuse is a growing problem that can be a challenge to address. Physical, emotional, and financial abuse is associated with increased mortality rates, especially in those that are alone. The National center on Elder Abuse (as cited in Hoover & Polson, 2014) defines elder abuse as “intentional or neglectful acts by a caregiver or ‘trusted’ individual that lead to or may lead to, harm of a vulnerable elder”. Mistreatment of older adults will incline as the number of adults that need caregivers increase. The elder adult that is the most susceptible to abuse is most likely frail, defenseless, and cognitively impaired. Amidst all other problems, the older adult has encountered at least one type of abuse in their later years. Many cases of older adult abuse are not reported and the abuse continues until mortality.

One of the fastest growing populations in the United States are the elderly. According to Stark (2012, p. 24), “In 2000, adults age 65 and older accounted for 12.5% of the U.S. population. By 2050, they'll account for an estimated 25% of the U.S. population.”As the elderly population continues to grow, so are the cases of elder abuse, especially elder abuse types that are difficult to detect. It is a growing concern for today's modern and future society.

I am intending on researching the rising epidemic of elder abuse and why and how it happens. I hypothesize that the subject generally is unheard of and goes unnoticed for many people. Since working and caring for the elderly is a part of the medical field, my primary audience would be health care professionals who work in elder facilities as well as family members who have taken on the role as care giver. These individuals should be interested in the topic because chances are they are passionate about their work or family member and would like to acquire knowledge on how to prevent or help life proceed to those that have been affected by the situation. The people who have the greatest opportunity and accessibility to help the victims of

The elderly population is faced with many challenges as they age. One of the challenges is elder abuse. Globally, elderly abuse is a major social problem that has worsened over time. Physical, sexual, emotional or psychological and financial abuses are some of the forms of abuse the elderly population are subject to. Has memory problems such as dementia, lack of support and physical disabilities are some causes or risk factors of elderly abuse. The consequences of such abuse going unresolved is have health issues, such as depressions, anxiety, stress, long term-psychological issues and even death. Moreover, “elderly abuse is often defined as a repeated or single act, or lack of appropriate action, that happens in any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes distress, injury, or suffering to an older person” (Kilvik et. al., 2015). The prevalence of Elder abuse is that of a world-wide issue caused by perpetrators, such as family members, friends, healthcare professionals, relatives and strangers. Interventions and prevention measures are put into place to help older adults suffering from the after math of abuse. As the elderly population grow, elder abuse increases. what are the different forms of elderly abuse? What are the various risk factors of elder abuse?

In general, elder abuse refers to any knowing, intentional or negligent act by a caregiver or any other person that causes harm or risk of harm to a vulnerable adult. All fifty states have laws of some form that prohibit elder abuse. Sadly, we do not know exactly how many elderly suffer from neglect and abuse. Although, statistics show female elders are abused at a higher rate than males. The elderly person may be hesitant to report the abuse because of lack of physical ability to report or fear or retaliation. Most of the time, the abusers are family members. Family members who use a lot drugs or alcohol, have a mental illness, and who feel burdened by their caregiving responsibilities are more likely to be abusive. About 5.1 million Americans over the age of 65 have

Abuse of elderly is prevalent throughout contemporary America. Elder abuse is the mistreatment of people, as defined by The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization, 60 years of age older (JCAHO 2002). “Examples ranged from outright physical assault of old people in modernized cultures that have been sadly acculturated to so-called traditional forms of family violence, to the systematic ostracisation of tribal elders by the community in some less developed countries as a form of scapegoating.” There are several types of abuse toward the elderly, but in this outlet, I will explore the details of the physical, mental/emotional, sexual, and financial abuse.

Elders in the United States should not have to go through situations of abuse like the one Mildred Mortenson suffered. However, this type of situations happen more often than they should and sadly, there is not enough being done to prevent it. Elder abuse should be recognized as an increasing and very serious problem in our society. As elders grow more physically frail and begin to depend on others to meet their basic needs, they tend to become vulnerable to intentional abuse and neglect within their own home as well as assisted living facilities such as nursing homes. Unfortunately, it is not possible to know exactly how many elders are being abused across the Nation. Due to under-reporting, variations in the definition of elder abuse,

Elderly abuse is more and more becoming recognized, whereas before child abuse and domestic violence was way more viewed before elderly abuse (1). This epidemic problem has grown tremendously (1). Elderly abuse is when an older adult is being distress due to another causing deliberate harm to that person (1). Your rarely hear on the news about elderly abuse, but unfortunately elder abuse are increasing (2). The government has concern about this and is working on action on elder abuse they found in a “over a period of 6 months, nine local authorities reported 639 abuse cases, 188 were in care at home, and 116 was from working in either a care home or hospital, but five cases was criminally prosecuted” (2). Abuse is a violation of an individual human and civil rights by any other person or persons is causing the elderly to have stress and suffering(2). A recent summary of international elder abuse prevalence data reported that as many as 4.3% of older adults (equivalent to 1.6 million older Americans) are physically abused annually; even higher rates are reported for dependent older adults with caregivers (4). Who are the abuser acquaintances, sons, daughters, grandchildren, caregiver, and spouses. Some of the abuser are unmarried, live with their victims, unemployed. Some can have alcohol or substance abuse problems (5). The majority of identified victims are women, however older men have been sexually abused in both domestic and institutional settings (5). Violence

Elder Abuse is defined as any activity performed by an individual whereby these actions cause suffering of the older adult, intentionally or not (Touhy, Jett, Boscart & McCleary, 2012, p. 378). Unfortunately, the incidents of elder abuse continue to rise with the increasing number of people entering older adulthood. It is interesting to note that although elder abuse is highly under reported its occurrence increased three fold over a ten-year period (Friese & Collopy, 2010, p. 61). Certainly, it is a nurse’s duty to provide holistic care to his or her patients, which must include protection from abuse. Elder abuse can take on many forms including physical, emotional, sexual, neglect and financial. It is important to note that for the