Elder abuse includes physical, emotional harm inflicted upon an older adult, their financial exploitation,
or neglect of their welfare by people who are directly responsible for their care. In the U.S. alone, more
than half a million reports of elder abuse reach authorities every year, and millions of more cases gou unreported.
When I come to U.S., I noticed the culture here is different than the one in my country according to the
way we treat our elders. With my culture, our parents try to explain how we need to manage our elders.
They are the parent of our parents, and they need to treat them well because they are less able to take careof themselves. Our elders might stay with our family or remain in their home, and we can visit them orhave a family member stay with them, sometimes grandchildren on holidays. With the U.S. culture, it’sdifferent. I realized that when people get old, they send them to a senior house where no one takes care ofthem as they can when they lived with their family members. The elders don’t like to stay in senior homesand caregivers in the senior home complaining about the elders that it’s not easy to satisfy them. I talked to both sides, elders, and caregivers. Where elders don’t like to live in those houses, they wish they can stay at their house and have someone to stay with them instead of living in a senior home, because they see their caregivers’ as bad people. Caregivers told me that it’s not easy to take care of elders who seem to lose their hearing, and they don’t think clearly as they used to when they were young, sometimes caregivers working full time and get tired of doing their job correctly.
Abuse of elders takes many different forms, some involving intimidation or threats against the elderly,
some involving neglect, and others involving financial trickery. The most common are:
Physical elder abuse, the non-accidental use of force against an older person that results in physical pain, injury, or impairment. It seems that the elders get an advantage only in the parking lot where they mention perking for handicap. Most older people considered to be handicap, but inside the facilities, you see them online waiting like others, and this harm their back, and sometimes they can’t wait for long, in buses you can see young sitting and they can’t give their place to elders.
Emotional elder abuse, the treatment of an older adult in ways that cause emotional or psychological pain or distress, including intimidation through yelling or threats, humiliation and ridicule, ignoring the older person, isolating an elder from friends or activities, terrorizing or menacing the older person. Children are not trained on how to treat their elders. Sometimes is because elders are isolated from their family, so the children don’t know much about elders. Some teens told me that they don’t get a chance to be with their elders; they also left their home and spent their lifetime studying or working and don’t get time to visit or be with their elders, which makes them not to know how to treat them.
Elder neglect, failure to fulfill a caretaking obligation. Elder neglection constitutes more than half of all reported cases of elder abuse. It can be intentional or unintentional, based on factors such as ignorance or denial that an elderly charge needs as much care as they do. We see these much in a senior home, where caregivers are tired or not happy with the elders, they are in charge off, and some caregivers are not satisfied with their salary, that is not enough according to the job they are doing.
We can preventing elder abuse and neglect, by educating our young people how to treat the elders and
have a culture of stay with them learn how to handle them directly without learning at school, also discuss with elders what frustrates them and what makes them happy. For a caregiver to an older person, they might feel that they are in danger of hurting or neglecting them. They need to know how to control their anger, sometimes they scream and yell to the elders or lashing them if this happens; you need to request help from friends, relatives because every caregiver requires to take regular breaks to form the stress of caring for an elder. The elders sometimes don’t like their caregivers simply because they don’t fit together; this needs to be corrected before it went far away and find a caregiver whose they will be happy. Also, it needs a family member to always pass to visit the elders and makes them feel loved not rejected. Also, the management of senior homes needs to pay a reasonable salary to the caregivers to makes them love and do their job happily.
Find a support group for caregivers of the elderly, sharing your concerns and experiences with others
facing the same challenges can help relieve the isolation you may be feeling as a caregiver. It can also be
a great place to gain valuable tips and insight into caring for an elder.
Finally, if we need to stop elders from being abused and neglected, it needs to be everybody’s concern.
They are one today but remember its where we are going; if not fight for their help and protection, we
will face the same when we are older too.
We can do this by teaching our children to obey them because if they learn that from home, they will practice it outside. We also need to have a special reception forelders everywhere they visited not to have an only parking lot and go to spend time online waiting for their turn. At the senior home, we need to call and visit them as often as we can because sometimes, they feel rejected, and it is nothing terrible like feel rejected by your family members. Always ask them how they are treated and if nothing wrong with their caregivers before it goes wrong. Elders also should be stable for themselves.
Lastly, if you notice and identify elders abuse or neglect, contact an elder abuse attorney Los Angeles and Orange county without delay, it will help. Sometimes we see it and don’t act but remember today is someone’s parent and tomorrow is yours. And remember that everyone deserves to live in safety, with dignity and respect.
