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The elderly driving essay
The elderly driving essay
The elderly driving essay
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Another danger that may harm the elderly living alone is driving. Since eyesight, hearing, and reflexes decline gradually as you age, driving becomes more and more difficult. When seniors live alone, there’s no one to give them a lift to wherever they want. They have to drive. This may cause dangers to other people and to themselves. On my way to school last year, I was behind a car moving somewhat erratically. First, I thought that the driver was drunk or asleep. However, when driving past him, I recognized he was an elder, maybe 80 years old or more, and his hands were shaking holding the wheel! I was very worried about him. In one case in February 2018, Santia Feketa, 18, and Britney Poindexter, 17, were killed after their pickup was hit
head-on by a wrong-way RV driven by a 98-year-old Michigan man. In another case in October 2016, 22-year-old, Dann Jenkins, was riding a motorbike in northern NSW. Edwin Jessop, 87, was driving in the opposite direction and failed to see Dann coming and turned directly into his path. A crash investigation found Mr. Jessop had almost six seconds to see Dann. According to CDC, in 2015, 19 older adults killed and 712 injured in crashes on average every day in the United States.
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
Of nursing home staff interviewed in 2004, nearly 40% admitted to committing at least one psychologically abusive act toward a resident and 10% admitted to physically abusing a resident in the preceding year.[1] Not only are nursing home residents at risk of being abused by their caretakers but they are also at risk of being restrained, which may lead to a form of abuse. With five percent of the elderly population, or one to two million instances of elder abuse occurring yearly there is no doubt that elder abuse deserves serious consideration.[2]
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 purposes of this paper, this writer will focus solely on financial abuse. When one considers the definition of financial abuse, it is deemed to be a misuse of another individual’s finances for ones own monetary gain. Thus, this type of abuse has become the most common and fastest growing form of all. As such, it is important for all nurses to understand financial abuse and who is at risk, how it presents, and what can be done to prevent it in order to protect the elderly.
There is a great debate on whether or not the elderly should be able to drive. Most people who have had any encounters with terrible elder drivers would say no way. This is because they have had that one or maybe even two experiences with a not so cautious elderly driver. This experience has caused them to put a stereotype on all elderly people and their driving abilities. After reading and analyzing all four of the elderly women from the four works in A Writer’s Reader. The authors of each have included many different stereotypes of elderly women. Just like the elderly driving ability stereotype is not true for all elderly drivers. The Authors stereotypes are not always true for every elderly woman. The authors are just informing their readers on the many different stereotypes that are floating around.
Nursing Home Abuse With over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country, abuse and neglect has become a widespread problem. Even though some nursing homes provide good care, many are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Most residents in nursing homes are dependent on the staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming- almost all their daily care. Unfortunately, many residents in nursing homes today are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. They are often isolated, ignored, and deprived of social contact and stimulation.
Elder abuse in nursing home is a social problem that has had more and more attention in these recent years. “Elder abuse is the most recent domestic violence issue to gain the attention of the public and the medical community.” (Elder Abuse: A Review) According to the Senate Special Committee, about 5 “million older Americans are abused and neglected every year.” Abuse for the elderly can be considered a social problem due to the people who are in denial of it actually occurring, for example, the caregivers and nurses who do not consider themselves to be actually performing the abuse. It is a problem because the elders are put into these nursing homes by loved ones and ones who
When discussing abuse and neglect we often think of children first. That being said, children are not the only ones who will be abused and/or neglected. In fact, this happens to some elderly as well. While some elderly may be productive enough to care for themselves, others are not. The end result is a complete (or close to complete) dependency on someone else for their needs. In addition, just like with children, this dependency can lead to abuse and/or neglect.
The article, Elderly health care: The line between care and killing, from the Hearld-Review, illustrates the many problems the courts have with elder abuse cases. The case involved the death of 91 year-old Maria “Concha” Lopez of Madera, California who was being cared for by her 26 year-old grandniece, Stephanie Hernandez. Ms. Hernandez called 911 when her Aunt stopped breathing and told the dispatcher that her aunt’s bones were too fragile for CPR, so the dispatcher gave instructions for basic mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Arriving firefighters and paramedics were inundated with the odor of urine, feces, and rotting flesh emanating from piles of soiled diapers, used bandages and the patient. Ms. Lopez’s had dementia and would not go near doctors. She weighed about 35 pounds and had bedsores so deep that you could touch her bones and the metal rod in her hip. Ms. Hernandez was arrested and charged with murder for failure to give adequate care to her aunt. The trial took five weeks with the defense attorneys showing Ms. Hernandez as a loving niece whose efforts kept an old woman alive and the prosecutor showing autopsy photos and describing the woman’s condition as the result of severe criminal negligence. Ms. Hernandez’s mother worked in the fields and left her in the care of four great-aunts. Ms. Lopez watched her three sisters die in hospitals and made her family promise that she would not be taken to a hospital. The family expected Ms. Hernandez, who also had a small child, to take care of Ms. Lopez after she broke her hip. During the trial, the experts disagreed on whether the bed sores were caused by neglect or because her skin failed when she lost over half her body weight. The jury deliberated for two days and ev...
Assisted Living Facilities abuse is a frequently occurring problem in our society (Hamilton). There are diverse categories of abuse that transpire in Assisted Living Facilities which are physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment, and financial abuse. Samples of physical abuse would be hitting or beating the elders with an object or their hand, force feeding them or pulling their hands. Sexual abuse is the Assisted Living Facility employees having sexual acts with non-consenting patients. Emotional abuse is the employees saying things verbally to torment the patient. Neglect would be the employee does not take care of the patients such as providing hygiene. Abandonment occurs when leaving patients to fend for themselves. Financial abuse is when the patient’s family pays for the services that were not taken care of. “Elder abuse is fast becoming one of the uppermost law enforcement tasks of the next century, “said Paul Hodge who investigates crime against the elderly (Gonzalez). Since abuse occurs throughout assisted living facilities, state and federal governments should establish a type of punishment such as sending for employees to prison, ways to prevent abusing elderly’s is by inspecting employees ' criminal records, qualified staff, reporting injuries, having surveillance of the areas that do not affect patients privacy, promoting continuous family visits, and shortage of staffing.
According to Carnegie Mellon University the casualties’ rate for drivers 85 years and older is 4 times more higher than it is for teenagers who are considered are most reckless drivers. Penndot statistics shows that the number of crashes involving drivers age 65 and older in 2013 was up 12 percent from five years before. Voanews indicates that in a lot of elderly drivers accidents they mistaken the gas pedal for the brakes or vice versa. One fatality crash can affect and impact people for their whole lives. These crashes can occur in seconds. According to cdc.gov there were nearly 5,700 elderly drivers that were killed. Police are already busy enough the more we can reduce their work the more it will help keep our community safer; not only in crashes but the police can also focus more on preventing drug deals and gang fights. To put it another way we don’t want families to be stressed out on their elderly parents safety we want them to feel like their parents are safe, so they can go help other issues in this
Every American should have the right to live free from the fear of abuse. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. The National Center on Elder Abuse Administration on Aging (NCEA) stated, “In the United States, the 2010 Census recorded the greatest number and proportion of people age 65 and older in all of decennial census history: 40.3 million, or 13% of the total population. This “Boomer Generation” effect will continue for decades”. This suggests that with the population of elders increasing, the abuse of elders will grow much higher. Elder abuse if defined as intentionally causing harm to a vulnerable elder by a caregiver or someone they trust. There are five main types of abuse; Physical, sexual, neglect, emotional or psychological
Media attention of elderly abuse usually refers to the incidents of abuse in nursing or assisted care facilities. Although the prevalence of elderly abuse in nursing homes in America may suggest that nursing homes are a common source of elderly abuse, the data on abuse suggests that in most cases the abuse is inflicted by a family member or well trusted individual. The growing number of elderly over the age of 65 does have an impact on the rate of incidence of abuse in assisted care facilities. The number of elderly in nursing homes is increasing “3.2 million Americans resided in nursing homes during 2008” (National Center on Elder Abuse, 2014) And “in 2009, the National Center for Assisted Living reported that over 900,000 people nationwide lived in assisted living settings”( National Center on Elder Abuse, 2014). Data suggests one in three nursing homes have reported incidence of abuse. Studies of abuse show that the elderly abused in nursing homes only count for a small fraction of the number of elderly who suffer abuse. These statistics stated, it is clear to see the prevalence of elderly abuse.
Again, it makes the headlines; an older driver causes a dangerous automobile crash. As the amount of elderly driving has increased in the past decade, the risk for others to be out on the road has increased. In 2012, there were 36 million licensed older drivers in the United States. (Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation (US)) As a 34% increase from 1999, it has been noted that seniors are driving past their ability by an average of 10 years. (Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation (US)). Elderly continue to drive despite the prominent physiological changes that worsen as they age. The amount of automobile collisions suggests that prevention must occur in order to make the roads safer. By examining older drivers’ medical complications, older drivers must be retested to be able to drive a vehicle.
America is a country where everyone is free to live however they like, but it is possible for some people to live a happy life, if no one is around to take care of them. Nearly three hundred million people reside in the America, and out of those three hundred million populations, senior citizens make a 12 percent of the entire population. A senior citizen is commonly known as a person who is over the age of 65 and living on retirement, or known as social security benefits (Census Bureau). Ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt implied the act of Social Security in 1935, seniors are regularly provided a financial help, but seniors, along with financial help, seeks also accompany of someone who can look after them. Because of constantly growing needs of senior citizens, government as well as many non-profit organizations is working on helping seniors. Therefore I decided to research on this particular issue in my community, and I found that 64.5% of seniors are living alone in metropolitan area of Atlanta.
Social isolation has to do with when older people retire, thus cutting off an important source of social activity. Declining health also increases isolation by making it hard to get around. Death of friends, neighbors, family members, and spouses also contribute to this issue and consequently make a new one, a higher risk of death. Months after a spouse dies, the partner is at a higher risk of death due to depression henceforth leading to suicide. Retirement is a big part of aging which many younger people do not think about. As a result of a fluctuating economy, many people are very cautious about giving up working and staging or maybe even not retiring. Elderly abuse is defined as a range of behavior that includes passive neglect, active emotional and verbal mistreatment, and even life-threating physical violence. For example unfairly taking some other property or wrongfully taking an older person’s money, but most of these cases go undetected because many are afraid to speak out. Some fear the abuse will increase and for this reason they don’t file a complaint (Macionis). There are many different political viewpoints concerning