By: Stacy Fisher
When you think of Senior Abuse your first thought is
probably a lonely lady sitting in a decrepit nursing home room, with bruises on
her face right? Although that could happen, Senior abuse takes many silent
forms. As the Seniors grow in number in the United States and Canada, the
instances of Senior abuse has also grown. In this article I will discuss several
forms of abuse, the symptoms, how to report it, and what we can do to prevent it
in our loved ones?
Being a former CNA (Certified Nurses Assistant) at a rehabilitation facility, I
learned how to spot blatant abuse, and there are some things you don't even
realize are abuse. I remember working for a certain facility, and remembering
residents sitting on the toilet sometimes for nearly a half an hour, waiting to
be helped up. I remember Nurses aides at feeding time when we would be feeding
some of our Alzheimer's residents pureed foods, and nurses would mix all the
food up into one big food pile.
I questioned this once as to why they do this, and their response was "They
don't know the difference." This broke my heart, and this is why I am writing
this information down,for others to learn from.
There are five common kinds of abuse: Physical, sexual, financial, mental, and
neglect.
Physical abuse is battering or assaulting the patient and/or family member, and
inflicting pain and injury (example bruising, bleeding, slapping etc.) Force
feeding is also a form of physical abuse.
Sexual abuse is not as common as the other forms of abuse, but it does happen,
and because it is not so common it is the most vital to recognize. Sexual abuse
is any sexual activity the older person does not consent to, or cannot consent
to because they are incapable of giving consent.
Financial abuse occurs when a anyone uses financial funds illegally and without
the consent of the owner of the funds whether they be for personal gain or the
gain of the owner of the funds.
Mental abuse comes when someone causes anguish or undue stress which alters the
mentality of the patient or family member. (Threats, condemning the person,
humiliating, and intimidating all fall into this category) For example, you
witness a daughter talking to her elderly mother, and the daughter yells "Mom
you need to shut up and listen to me for once because you are crazy and you know
it!" The daughter makes the statement loud enough for everyone to hear it, thus
humiliating her. This is Mental abuse. Even in private this type of statement
would be construed as Mental abuse.
Neglect is the most gray shaded of all the forms of abuse, because it could be
so slight,so subtle, you may not even know you are witnessing abuse. On a
further note, forty to fifty percent of all abuse cases are self-neglect cases
according to AARP. Self neglect is when someone is competent enough to care for
themselves, but chooses not to.
If you know someone who is being abuse here are some organizations to contact:
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