Your elderly parents are not only vulnerable to sickness, but also to elder abuse. That is because, as elders become more physically weak, they are less able to defend their selves to bullying or fight back if they are attacked. As their senses weaken, it leaves them at risk to unscrupulous people that would take advantage of them.
Elder abuse are sometimes deliberate and sometimes because of ignorance. According to the statistics, more than 10,000 of elderly across the United States are being abused everyday in some substantial way, mostly by the people who directly responsible for their care. Every year, more than half a million report of abuse against elderly reached American authorities every year and millions of more cases go unreported.
Most of the elder abuse takes place where the senior live. If they are at home, abusers might be the adult children, other family members such as grandchildren or spouses or partners of the elders. Live-in caregivers may also be the abusers of the elderly. Institutional setting especially long-term facilities can also be sources of elder abuse.
There are cases that a bedridden elderly has bedsores and severely malnourished and dehydrated. This kind of abuse is called neglect. There are many forms elderly abuse; it could be a physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect or abandonment by caregivers, financial exploitation and healthcare fraud and abuse.
If we have elderly parents or relative, we have to be watchful and pay attention to them. They might be a victim or would be a victim of elderly abuse. On next the next post we will discuss the different kind of elderly abuse and its signs and symptoms.
- Home Care from Professional Health Care Services, Inc. (PHCSI)
