Abuse of Older Adults
Seniors deserve to live with dignity and respect. Abuse of older adults is an act or behaviour by anyone, including a caregiver, which results in harm to an older person's well-being or safety. Caregivers are often family members, but include anyone who provides care to the older person in their own home or care facility.
Issues of power and control underlie all abuse situations and the most vulnerable people are at the most risk. Abuse of older adults may take the form of financial abuse, emotional abuse, physical or sexual abuse, or neglect.
Facts to Consider
4% of older people living in private dwellings report being abused or neglected each year.
The most common form of abuse is financial abuse.
Approximately 12,000 older people in Canada experience physical abuse each year.
Men are just as likely as women to be victims of older person abuse.
Types of Older Person Abuse
FINANCIAL abuse may involve forcing a person to sell their personal belongings or property. It may also involve pressuring them to pay for products and services that are not needed. Stealing a person's money, pension cheques or possessions, or withholding money that is required for daily expenses are other examples. Theft, fraud, forgery, extortion and the wrongful use of a power of attorney are also forms of financial abuse. Older victims of financial abuse often have a close relationship with their abuser. Indicators of financial abuse can include their standard of living is not in keeping with income or assets, theft of property noted, unusual or inappropriate activity in bank accounts, forged signatures on cheques, forcing a person to sign over property or execute a Will, overdue bills, mail going missing.
PHYSICAL abuse includes things like slapping, pushing, kicking, shaking, misuse of medication and forced confinement, for example, not allowing an older person out of a room, bed or chair for extended periods of time. It also includes sexual abuse such as inappropriate touching during personal care routines, sexual comments or sexual activity without the adult's consent. Indicators of physical abuse include unexplained injuries in areas normally covered (e.g., bruises in various stages of healing, burns or bites), untreated medical problems, history of "accidents", signs of over/under medication, wasting, dehydration.
EMOTIONAL abuse is any action or comment causing emotional anguish, fear or diminished self-esteem or dignity (e.g. humiliating, insulting, threatening or controlling behaviour). Abusers may socially isolate an older person or threaten to have them placed in a facility. Abusers may also unnecessarily restrict or remove an older person's decision making powers. Indicators of emotional abuse include fear, anxiety, depression, withdrawal, cowering, reluctance to talk openly, fearful interaction with caregiver, caregiver speaking on behalf of person and not allowing privacy.
NEGLECT is the failure to provide basic or personal care needs (e.g. food, water, required medications, shelter, hygiene, clothing, physical aides such as hearing aids or dentures, exercise, or social interaction).
Three types of neglect exist:
Active Neglect - the intentional failure of a caregiver to fulfill their caregiving responsibilities.
Passive Neglect - the unintentional failure of a caregiver to fulfill their caregiving responsibilities because of lack of knowledge, skill, illness, infirmity or lack of awareness of community supports and resources.
Self Neglect - although not a form of elder abuse, it is the person's inability to provide for their own essential needs because of physical infirmity or inability to make sound choices due to addiction, mental illness and/or cognitive impairment.
DOMESTIC ABUSE is any actual or threatened physical, sexual, financial or psychological abuse of a person by someone with whom they have an intimate or familial relationship( e.g. aims to instill fear and/or to coercively control the individual.
INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE is any physical, sexual, psychological or financial abuse or neglect occurring within a facility (e.g. active victimization, failure to respect an individual's rights, withholding or denying individual care needs, overmedication, misuse of chemical or physical restraints and/or failure to carry out reasonable requests.
Who Are the Victims?
Older victims of abuse often know the people who hurt them. Many victims are dependent on their abusers for food, shelter, transportation, personal care or companionship.
Many victims live in their own home or with relatives. Others live in assisted-living complexes such as private care homes and long-term care facilities or nursing homes.
Many older victims of abuse in the community are mentally competent and do not require constant care. Those victims who do have mental or physical disabilities are especially vulnerable, but abuse can happen to any older person. The greatest physical harm is often done to those in frail health. Some older people are the victims of abuse by their spouse.
It is important to recognize that isolation and abuse go hand in hand. Most abused older people are isolated from their friends, neighbours and other family members. Often the abuser controls the situation by refusing visitors or phone calls and making the victim unavailable.
How Can You Help an Older Victim of Abuse?
Victims, caregivers and potential abusers need information and support. Those already in abusive situations need the abuse to stop. Different options are appropriate for different forms and stages of abuse. Before taking any action remember that it is important to ask yourself if what you are doing will help empower the older adult and keep them safe or if it will disempower them and/or put them in more danger. There are things that you can do. Contact other people who know the victim, for example, a doctor, clergy, social worker, elder, other family members or friends. You can also make a report to your local RCMP detachment and they would be able to investigate the report of abuse or neglect.
If you are being abused or neglected, or if you think someone else is being abused, tell someone. Advice, referrals and support is available through local police services, social service agencies and professionals. Several groups offer public education on this issue and a variety of community service organizations can provide support.
Remember, no one deserves to be abused or neglected. Support, education and legal remedies are available.
Respectively submitted by:
The Yorkton and Area Partnership against Violence Committee
For more information on how to recognize and stop Abuse of Older Adults in the Yorkton and area, contact:
Cheryl Tiller
Parkland Victims Services Inc.
Phone: (306) 786-2406
Email: [email protected]
Also: Website: http://www.seniors.gc.ca
