We must pay attention to and address all forms of abuse and victimization, especially among vulnerable populations. Children, the elderly, homeless, individuals with disabilities, persons with mental health issues, and victims of domestic violence are among those vulnerable populations. The argument that elder abuse may be one of the largest areas of concern is not ill-founded.
The number of aging adults is rapidly growing in the United States. According to the Population Reference Bureau (2015) report “Aging in the United States", baby boomers, in 2016, would be between the ages of 52 and 70, making them between the ages of 54 and 72 currently. This report projects a doubling of Americans ages 65 and older, from 46 million to over 98 million by 2060. This, coupled with the fact that people are living longer, is one of the many reasons why it is becoming increasingly important to focus on this population.
Aging is a part of life that no one is able to escape. With aging comes decreases in physical ability, cognitive declination, increased mental health problems because of inability to perform and function as once able, lesser social interactions and contact with loved ones and friends, and many other difficult circumstances. These circumstances often open doors for others to take advantage of, abuse, and/or neglect aging individuals. Financial, physical, mental, and emotional abuse as well as neglect and denying individuals their right to self-determination are among some of the most common ways that the aging are taken advantage of.
Legislation does not have the effect on this issue that is needed. However, Adult Protective Services is a national level, non-profit organization that is dedicated to serving and helping to protect the elderly from exploitation, abuse and neglect. Reports can be made and assistance provided for those individuals who are in need. However, because of the lack of legislation and the blurry lines between self-determination, cognitive ability, determining of inability to care for oneself, and many other important factors, it is often very difficult for situations to be prevented and/or remedied in regards to elderly abuse.
In order to make changes, it is, first, important that people become aware of the magnitude of this problem and its prevalence in society today. Educating the public at large of the issues that the elderly are facing, normalizing the aging process, and helping society to understand and interact with those that are going through these times can generate a new social norm in which elders are to be respected and treated as individuals. Fundamentally, creating a societal belief on the basis of respect for all individuals, would be the best way to solve such an issue. While this is something that can be worked on and improved through education and other repairative experiences, have a total societal shift in understanding and beliefs is unlikely.
Because of this, there are other ways that improvements can be made. Legislation and policies can always be improved. The standard of service provided at nursing, home-health agencies, and other facilities working with the elderly can be evaluated and improved upon. Regulations and policies in the training of employees and staff that work directly with the elderly can be improved upon, including training on the recognition of abuse from family, friends, and within the place of employment. Another way to improve the elder abuse problem is to incentivize individuals to work with this specific population of individuals. Social workers, psychologists, nurses, caregivers, and other professionals often forget about this area of work and its importance, or are not able to accept jobs in these capacities because of the workplace environment, hours, pay rate, and/or because of the problems they see within the workplace that accept or ignore these abuse situations.
Further Readings:
https://www.prb.org/aging-unitedstates-fact-sheet/
http://www.napsa-now.org/get-help/how-aps-helps/
https://ncea.acl.gov/whatwedo/index.html
It is important to pay attention to all forms of victimization, especially of the most vulnerable among us. That would include the disabled, the elderly, those with mental health problems, and children. The reason for this is a moral one. While we should behave in an ethical fashion to everyone, healthy middle-class adults with no physical or mental disabilities or other issues are normally capable of taking care of themselves, but the frail or mentally impaired elderly may need extra help. This is especially important as people are now living longer and the elderly are an increasingly large portion of our population.
Elder abuse is a growing issue in the United States. Those most at risk of abuse are the frail elderly who need assistance in daily living, those who suffer from dementia or other cognitive impairments, and those without close living family members. As women tend to outlive men, they are more likely to end up widowed and thus potential targets for abuse or fraud.
Several things can be done about this. The first is strict regulation and regular inspections of assisted living facilities. Increased financial protection can include a system of alerts on bank accounts and other steps to prevent fraud or identity theft. Healthcare fraud is another ongoing issue. Since many of the elderly rely on Medicare, this means that the CMS can work diligently to prevent healthcare fraud and review treatments of the elderly to ensure that they are getting adequate care.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights
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