This article was written by (Fealy Gerard et al 2012) a national Centre for the protection of older people. As financial abuse grow so did it take several forms of mistreatment including physical, sexual, psychological, neglect and discriminatory. Although increase attention directed toward older abuse, but financial abuse remain difficult and it is very poorly to understand.
It has been mounting concern among advocacy groups, Social worker and health service provider and others that financial abuse of older people is a problem in the society. Financial abuse of older people did not come into common now; it has been since late 1970s. The first words that express the modern meaning of elder abuse were in an article simple titled ‘Granny battering;
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(Choi et al 1999) described financial abuse of older people as extortion, unexplained disappearance of valuables, inappropriate use of telephone, transfer of property and other assets. Financial abuse can also be defined as target, that is, it may be ‘intended’ or ‘unintended’. (Naughton et al 2010) report that the prevalence of financial abuse in Ireland was 1.3 per cent translating to an estimate prevalence of 6,000 cases of financial abuse within the older people population. Over 2,000 older people in England and Northern Ireland have experience financial abuse. It is very difficult to identify financial abuse, because the perpetrators may be living with the older person and some of them are adult offspring. It is very sad to know that adult sons were more likely than adult daughters to be the perpetrators of financial abuse. Choi et al reported that 20 per cent of perpetrators were non relative while 23 per cent of sons and 16 per cent of daughters were perpetrator of older financial abuse. National Centre for older abuse found that 75 per of all types of abuse were less than 60 years of age NCEA, (2006). Detecting /Recognising of financial abuse are tricky because there may be no direct outward
A notable amount of thee victims come from working class and lower economic background and money and the lack there of was a major preceding factor in many cases. Domestic violence is not exclusive to the working class or low income and transcends economic status it I worth note that domestic violence disproportionately affects people of lower economic status. Lacking financial resources is a leading reason why women stay in abusive relationships. A number of cases in the document had heavy relation to finances and abusers controlling the finances in the relationship, even when the perpetrators of abuse were not the
As you can see, I am not elderly and I have not experienced elder abuse personally, but I am a concerned American. The aging
Elder abuse is causing emotional, physical or sexual harm, financial exploitation, or intentional or unintentional neglect to someone of greater age, whether it be from a family member or a stranger. Elder abuse has been a social issue for many years prior to any kind of legislation being made. Victims of elder abuse are often older adults ages 60 to 75 and the person abusing the elder is usually someone the victim knows, but could be a stranger in certain cases.
To begin, “Financial abuse towards the elderly is defined as the financial exploitation of seniors because of vulnerabilities related with age”. (Crimes-of-persuasion.com). It is unfortunate that this kind of abuse can be done by someone the elders know and trust – such as, family members, visitors, nurses, social workers, or doctors. From the same website, an explanation is given on how seniors may not report such a crime for a variety of reasons. Some may be either that they are simply unaware of the situation, afraid of revenge by the abuser, or ashamed that they cannot handle the abuse in their own home themselves. It has been proven, by the Mature Market Institute, a research organization, that four out five cases of elder abuse from a financial nature are not reported because of the motives that were previously stated. Is this ...
In recent years, the shameful subject of elder abuse has gained more awareness among community members. In particular, the complexity of elder financial abuse often makes manipulative dealings by fraudsters difficult to identify and separate from actual permissive transactions made by older victims. The result is that these cases are very rarely prosecuted and many other undetected cases continue to fall far below the radar of society. The consequences of financial exploitation of older adults are reaching far beyond the immediate distress of financial depletion. Victims may also experience declines in physical and mental health as well as the risk of a decrease in life expectancy (Kemp & Mosqueda, 2005). The purpose of the following studies is to address the issue of financial exploitation of elder adults through the means of intervention, prosecution, prevention, and correlation between different forms of abuse.
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]
Swan, A. (2007). Give consideration to financial abuse among the older population. British Journal of Community Nursing, 12, 474-476. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=2009697435&site=ehost-live
The selection of whether an abused older adult should enter an adult protection agency or a domestic violence program is often dependent on her age and whether or not the abuser is of relation or known to the victim (Kilbane & Spira, 2010). The concept of being known to the perpetrator is similar to US law regarding sexual abuse of a child, whereas, according to Fong and Cardoso (2010) child sexual abuse comes in many forms; however, some forms of child sexual abuse does not qualify a child victim for services provided by the child protection agency. To reap the benefits of the child protective agency, “…the perpetrator of sexual abuse needs to be responsible for the care and custody of the child” (pp. 313). One can argue that there is a moral failure of the legislative body to pass laws that does not provide the needed protections for older woman against perpetrators. The requirement of the perpetrator needing to be known to the older victim appears unjust for the older woman. For example, older women suffer from dementia which renders her forgetful of the individual/caregiver (Reingold, 2006). In this scenario, the perpetrator of the abuse may not be known to the victim ...
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
In addition, just like with children, this dependency can lead to abuse and/or neglect. There has been an increase in the number of elderly people that have been subjected to violence and mistreatment. This type of treatment is associated with the individual’s dependency on others, whether it be a relative, acquaintance and/or institution (Meadows, 2010). According to estimates “between 1 and 2 million Americans aged 65 years or older have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for protection (National Research Council Panel to Review Risk and Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect, 2003)” (Meadows, 2010, p. 87).
Elderly abuse should be a crime that is made into a law. Once someone create the act of abusing an elderly, they should be taken into custody to be taken to jail. Elderly abuse is crucial and people should understand they are human beings. Financial abuse is one of the worst abuses in assisted living facilities. Everythin...
...of statistics conducted a Personal Safety Survey in 2005 had questioned 16,400 individuals either the age of 18 and over. The findings had showed that 73.7% of women had said that the abuser in the relationship was of a male character, 81.1% of women did not report that they had been sexually abused to the police, 64% of women some form of physical abuse. 13.6 billion dollars per year has been the estimated amount by the Queensland Government that has been spent towards Domestic and Family Violence. By sharing the estimation using the population in Queensland, Queensland has the inferred the cost of 2.7 to 3.2 billion dollars.
Elder abuse is the mistreatment towards an elderly individual over the age of 60. According to
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