Elder abuse Essay

Elder abuse is a practice carried out by various groups of people in different set of societies. It is a practice which has been grouped among other forms of discrimination. Elder abuse is thus discrimination of elder rights and freedom on the basis of age. Basically elders should be cared for and be given opportunity to express their opinion in the society. They have rights just like any other person of whichever age and therefore should not be subjected to any form of injustice. There are different types of elder abuse and each has specific indictors and consequences. Elders are abused financially through discrimination on financial matters. This form of abuse involves a situation where an elder is denied access to property which belongs to him, elder caregiver refuses to spend money from elder’s account, withdrawal of money from elders account through coaxing or by force and also taking advantage of the elder’s condition to misuse his money. This is like in the case of Mr. Jones, his daughter want to misuse his funds, taking advantage of his physical condition. Another form of elder abuse is inadequate care or neglecting them. Elderly people should be given care since they have many needs and they can not take care of themselves because of their age. This type of abuse involves not maintaining proper hygiene to the elders, not allowing the elders to participate family and other social ceremonies, not taking them for medication when they are sick and poor maintenance of the elder’s house of residence. Others are subjected to physiological and social abuse. In this type of abuse the elders are viewed as of no social or economical benefit and hence are neglected socially. They are tortured and are left mentally disturbed. They also suffer psychologically as they think how low they have been taken in the society. (http://www. elderabusecenter. org/default. cfm? p=nursinghomeabuse. cfm) Usually, the elder abusers share some chareacteristics. The elders’ abusers are either family member of the elder or non member of the family. Most of elder abusers are alcohol or drug addicted. This characteristic enables them to abuse the elders under drugs or alcohol control. They therefore mistreat the elders under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Most elder abusers depend on the elder for financial assistant. They therefore abuse them so that they can benefit financially at the elder expenses. Most elders’ abusers are stressed in life. They therefore abuse the elders out of stress and problems upon them. They see the elders as burden on top of their problems. Some of elder abusers are mentally ill. This makes them not to care about the elders and can mistreat them carelessly. The elders who fall victims of elder abuse also share some similar characteristics. Such elders are prone to abuse or are vulnerable. Elders with mental illness are basically prone to financial, sexual etc abuse. Most abused elders are socially rejected in the society. They therefore become desperate for any person who can socialize with them. The people who socialize with them usually abuse them since they understand they do not have other social friends. Most abused elders look exploitable form the look. In this way they give in easily to every idea given and they do not resist a lot especially in any argument. The abusers therefore take advantage and exploit them to their advantage. Most of the abused elders are physically or mentally impaired. This weakness gives abusers opportunities to abuse and mistreat the elders. For instance most elder women suffering from mental illness are sexually abused. (http://www. preventelderabuse. org/professionals/concerned. html) I can conclude by telling Mr. Jones that everybody has right to live free from any discrimination. This is clearly stated in the fundamental rights and freedom which state that nobody should be discriminated on basis of race, age, color etc. In that way therefore every elder should report any form of discrimination without fear.