Elder Abuse Essay

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Elder abuse is by no means a new phenomenon in Ireland. It is amongst a great deal of other abuses in Ireland which is now being more carefully regulated and supervised with new policies in the hope to prevent it in future. In this essay I will discuss the meaning of elder abuse and the types and consequences of it, the improved policies in place to try preventing further abuse of the elderly and also I will evaluate the effectiveness of these policies discussing the good and bad in the policies.
Elder abuse is the physical, emotional, financial or sexual abuse of a persons aged 65 or over. It is defined as ‘a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person or violates their human and civil rights.’(Protecting our Future, Report of the Working Group on Elder Abuse, 2002).
As mentioned above there is different types of elder abuse that can occur. Physical abuse is the act of hurting the person by means of hitting, neglecting their needs, using violence. Emotional abuse means that the person’s feelings are deliberately hurt or the persons are upset by the acts of their carer who is purposely trying to hurt them. Financial abuse is the act of the carer perhaps misusing the older person’s money or stealing their money. Sexual abuse means the older person is touched or forced to take part in sexual acts which they do not consent to. Each of these abuses are outlawed, however until recently had occurred in many settings for the elderly as they were not properly regulated and supervised.
Reports on these abuses showed the effect they had on the elderly who experienced them and also showed that it was quite comm...

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... number of elder people.
‘Continued advocacy is required to ensure that public policy remains focused on the needs of older adults, adults with dementia and adults in danger of abuse. In order to effectively combat elder abuse there must be leadership from government, service providers, other institutions and older people themselves and the organisations that represent them. Many of the risk factors associated with elder abuse and neglect will increase in Irish society over the coming decades given the rapidly ageing population. It’s essential that a strategy is drafted by government to deal with the multitude of issues that an ageing population will face. The CSO projects that the number of over-65s will double by 2026 to 909,000. ALONE is calling on the government to live up to its promise to take a pragmatic approach to the ageing Irish population.’ (Alone n.d)

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