What is Elder Abuse?
Elder abuse
is neglect of the elderly. For many of us, it's hard to
imagine neglecting our parent in their old age. However, as the most
notorious cases of elderly abuse will show, this crime is often
committed by people closest in relation to the senior person
concerned.
Elder
abuse may be defined as a
single action, the repeated
commission, or the omission of an appropriate action by the responsible
person,
which ends up in distressing or harming a senior citizen.
Under
US law, the
“responsible person” could be anyone, such
as:
- Person in
authority or position of control (e.g., caregiver)
- Partner or
spouse
- Family member
- Neighbor or
friend
- Volunteer/social
worker
Abuse
often comes in the form
of deserting an elderly
relative by leaving them or abandoning them at a certain location. In
fact, the
most prevalent type of elder abuse is neglect or lack of care. The
abandonment
takes place for such a long time that it puts the elder in
harm’s way.
Abuse
of the elderly can also
result from self-abuse, where
seniors neglect their own health or well being, resulting in injury,
sickness,
or death.
Recent
Incidents of Elder Abuse
Accurate
statistics are
difficult to obtain as families that
abuse their elders are understandably less than forthcoming about
information
and the elders themselves are helpless to say anything about the
abuse. This fact is emphasized by
recent statistics showing elder
abuse being reported by a third party in 70% of all cases in the US.
A
famous case is that of New
York multimillionaire
philanthropist/socialite, Brooke Astor, age 104. Her 82-year-old only
son
allegedly subjected her to elder abuse, such as being:
- left to
sleep on a sofa stained with urine;
- fed only
mushy peas;
- stopped from
seeing her dogs; and
- bled dry
financially.
After
Mrs. Astor’s
case came to light, publications like the New York Times
began reporting that their
relatives mistreat an
estimated 5% of America’s seniors.
What’s
interesting
about the statistics is that they show that the
abused elder is typically NOT dependent on the abusing relative.
Rather, it’s
the other way around - the abuser is usually dependent on the abused
elder, as
in the case of Mrs. Astor.
However,
recent studies also
reveal that perpetrators of
elder abuse are more often partners/spouses (at 60%) rather than
children (at
25%).
Female
victims account for
about 60% of cases. Where the
elder is abused by a partner/spouse, it is sometimes merely a
continuation of
long-term spousal abuse. Other times, abuse starts at retirement or the
onset
of illness.
Elder
Abuse - Types & Penalties
Experts
estimate that a million
American seniors are abused
by their relatives annually. Penalties and fines vary, depending on the
financial capacity of the abuser and the nature and extent of abuse.
This abuse
may be:
Neglect
– Depriving seniors of food, medicine, clothing, heat, etc.
(compounded by self-neglect).
Psychological
– Blaming, shouting, ignoring, swearing, or threatening to
put the elder in a nursing institution despite the lack of any
physical/mental reason to warrant it.
Physical
– Pushing, slapping, hitting, or
withholding/overdosing/giving the wrong medication.
Sexual (Rape).
Financial
– Using the elder’s money, pension, or property
without their consent; tampering with the elder’s will;
getting a Power of Attorney then depriving senior of his/her own cash
or property and/or evicting them from home.
Human Rights
– Denying seniors their constitutional/civil rights despite
not being declared in court as mentally incapacitated.
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