Domestic Violence and Elder Abuse

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I. Issue – Defining of DV vs. Elder Abuse With respect to older women, the issue is that there is a serious lack in differentiating between elder abuse and domestic violence. The discrepancy causes confusion as to what agency to report either volunteered or mandated cases of abuse (Kilbane & Spira, 2010). Furthermore, it is because of reporting errors that victims of abuse may not receive the services that are congruent to the type of abuse (Kilbane & Spira, 2010) indicating, “…a lack of centralized reporting of cases….” (Kilbane & Spira, 2010, p. 165). The selection of whether an abused older adult should enter an adult protection agency or a domestic violence program is often dependent on her age and whether or not the abuser is of relation or known to the victim (Kilbane & Spira, 2010). The concept of being known to the perpetrator is similar to US law regarding sexual abuse of a child, whereas, according to Fong and Cardoso (2010) child sexual abuse comes in many forms; however, some forms of child sexual abuse does not qualify a child victim for services provided by the child protection agency. To reap the benefits of the child protective agency, “…the perpetrator of sexual abuse needs to be responsible for the care and custody of the child” (pp. 313). One can argue that there is a moral failure of the legislative body to pass laws that does not provide the needed protections for older woman against perpetrators. The requirement of the perpetrator needing to be known to the older victim appears unjust for the older woman. For example, older women suffer from dementia which renders her forgetful of the individual/caregiver (Reingold, 2006). In this scenario, the perpetrator of the abuse may not be known to the victim ... ... middle of paper ... ...g Center utilizes the call log to analyze data. The only limitation to the study is that it failed to mention any costs related to obtaining the services. And it did not mention any demographic variables with respect to race, average age, and levels of income and mental health status (at intake) of the population they served. According to Cummings (2009) at intake, clients suffered a greatly with their activities of daily living and were recently hospitalized for psychiatric issues. It would be unfair to assume that the current study took into account for any of these issues. The study was limited in revealing this pertinent information. Greater knowledge of the patient during intake may provide for greater accuracy in determining the correct agency to direct the prospective client. Other than that, the program appears very thorough in their service delivery.

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