Elder Care | Elder Abuse - How To Detect It and Deal With It

How to Detect and Deal with Elder Abuse

Not everybody knows that physical and emotional abuse also happens to the elders. Understanding elder abuse is important so that you can easily detect and deal with it properly.

What is Elder Abuse?

Elder abuse is not only physical and emotional. It can also be psychological and mental.

Elder abuse is mostly committed by a member of the household or by a younger caregiver, or even between two older people who live together.

Normally, elder abuse occurs even if genuine love and affection is evident between the people that are involved. Different Forms of Elder Abuse

    Hitting and slapping
    Withholding of food and medication
    Unnecessary use of physical restraints
    Yelling and insulting
    Threats of violence
    Misuse of funds
    Theft
    Fraud

Abuse is basically obvious neglect or violence. Older people tend to be more fragile and are more prone to accidents. Because of this fact, it is not that easy to distinguish signs of elder abuse. If you are the one who abuses, then you will know any form of elder abuse although there are times the victims are unaware.

Additionally, because of degenerative diseases even if the elders are aware of any abuse, they are less likely to communicate it. This is indeed one reality that everybody should be careful about.

Elders are similar to babies. They are not able to communicate when something is wrong, or they are unable to care for themselves. This is primarily because elders start to imagine a lot of things, thus making them worried and forgetful most of the time.

Some Common Elder Abuse Situations

Surprisingly, studies have shown that the main source of elder abusers are the own families of the elders themselves. Some family members act out long term resentments, while some just want money. Others have addictions and most of the time, family members take out their frustrations on their elders.

To avoid such situations, it is wise that a competent and reliable member of the family should provide proper care, medical decisions, control the finances, and have access to the elders. However, if the care needs are not possible to be attended by family members, there are some very good Assisted Living facilities that are able to care for your elders even in the most severe situations. But still, all types of facilities require close monitoring from members of the family.

However, if no monitoring from family members is observed, another common source of elder abuse comes into the picture, this time, abuse from senior living facilities and nursing homes. It is important then that family members should often visit their elders at different times to meet and to develop relationships with employees from the nursing facility.

Also, family members should involve themselves in matters involving care decisions. But if the facility does not allow this, don't leave your loved one there. Keep in mind that the lack of involvement of family members is one of the major causes of home care abuse.

If you are a senior and you are living in a nursing home without any members of your family to monitor you, try to make friends so that when the times comes you are unable to get help from your friends.

The Abused Elder

If you are the abused elder, set aside your fears and the feelings of embarrassment. If you feel abused, contact the specific authorities in your area so you and the abuser can both obtain help, otherwise, the abuse will continue. If the abuser is a family member, then they need immediate help. If they are employees in home or nursing care centers; they could be arrested to avoid any more abuse in the future.

Effects of Elder Abuse

Basically, the first effect of elder abuse is injury. In the long run, the victim starts to feel humiliated, angry, fearful, and powerless. If the abuser is part of the family, the feeling of betrayal and compassion mixed with concern and compassion for the life of the abuser.

It is important that elders are properly taken care of so that elder abuse is less likely to happen. Understand the different forms of abuse and know what you can do about it.