According to the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA), more than 70% of the wealth in the United States is owned by senior citizens. (2008) This fact, in and of itself, shows one reason the elderly are often targets of financial abuse or exploitation. The Illinois Department on Aging (IDoA) defines financial exploitation as “the misuse or withholding of an older person’s resources to the disadvantage of the elderly person and/or the profit or advantage of another person.” (IDoA, 2012) Financial exploitation is taking or withholding money or assets from an elderly person with or without permission or when the elder does not have a reasonable level of cognitive ability to make an informed decision regarding their finances. As a supervisor in a home healthcare agency, knowing how to detect and stop the financial exploitation of elderly people by home care aides is important because it can cause severe emotional, physical and financial stress for the elder.
The theft or intentional exploitation of money or assets from an elder can cause them undue emotional, physical and financial stress. “In Illinois, 58% of elder abuse reports allege financial exploitation” (IDoA, 2006) which is a small percentage of actual cases. Many cases go unreported for fear of retaliation by the perpetrator or they don’t want to get anyone they know or love in trouble. According to Thomas L. Hafemeister, financial abuse can be as devastating to an elderly person as a violent crime or physical abuse and can have a huge impact on the victim both practically and psychologically. (Hafemeister, 2003)
A large number of elderly people have paid home care aides that come into their homes on a weekly or sometimes daily basis to assist...
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...y people from financial exploitation.
Works Cited
Hafemeister T., (2003), Financial Abuse of the Elderly in Domestic Setting. In: National Research Council (US) Panel to Review Risk and Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect; Elder Mistreatment: Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation in an Aging America. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK98784/
NCPEA, (2008) Financial Abuse. The National Committee on Elder Abuse. Retrieved from: http://www.preventelderabuse.org/elderabuse/fin_abuse.html
TImmermann, S. (2009). Protecting the Most Vulnerable from Financial Abuse: What Should We know?. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, (63)3, 23-25
What is abuse?, (2013), Illinois Department on Aging (IDoA), Adult Protective Services, Illinois Elder Abuse Annual Report 2006, Retrieved from: http://www.state.il.us/aging/1abuselegal/abuse_what-is.htm
Some of these cases of abuse are done in elderly homes by family members. In the first section of the article, the authors discuss the definition of elder abuse. The authors began with the most common types of elder abuse, which are physical and neglect. Elder abuse is the intentional use of physical force that results in acute or chronic illness, bodily injury, physical pain, functional impairment, distress, or death (Choi NG & Mayer J. In summary, the rhetorical analysis essay discusses how elder abuse and neglect affect the victims physically, emotionally, and professionally.
Elderly abuse should be a crime that is made into a law. Once someone create the act of abusing an elderly, they should be taken into custody to be taken to jail. Elderly abuse is crucial and people should understand they are human beings. Financial abuse is one of the worst abuses in assisted living facilities. Everythin...
Did you know that, according to the National Institute of Justice website, “There are few reliable national measures of elder abuse. This is partially because there is no uniform reporting system for elder abuse in the U.S.” ("Extent of Elder Abuse Victimization," 2015). It is sad that, in a country as developed as ours, we have no standard way of reporting elder abuse.
To begin, “Financial abuse towards the elderly is defined as the financial exploitation of seniors because of vulnerabilities related with age”. (Crimes-of-persuasion.com). It is unfortunate that this kind of abuse can be done by someone the elders know and trust – such as, family members, visitors, nurses, social workers, or doctors. From the same website, an explanation is given on how seniors may not report such a crime for a variety of reasons. Some may be either that they are simply unaware of the situation, afraid of revenge by the abuser, or ashamed that they cannot handle the abuse in their own home themselves. It has been proven, by the Mature Market Institute, a research organization, that four out five cases of elder abuse from a financial nature are not reported because of the motives that were previously stated. Is this ...
In recent years, the shameful subject of elder abuse has gained more awareness among community members. In particular, the complexity of elder financial abuse often makes manipulative dealings by fraudsters difficult to identify and separate from actual permissive transactions made by older victims. The result is that these cases are very rarely prosecuted and many other undetected cases continue to fall far below the radar of society. The consequences of financial exploitation of older adults are reaching far beyond the immediate distress of financial depletion. Victims may also experience declines in physical and mental health as well as the risk of a decrease in life expectancy (Kemp & Mosqueda, 2005). The purpose of the following studies is to address the issue of financial exploitation of elder adults through the means of intervention, prosecution, prevention, and correlation between different forms of abuse.
Though elderly abuse occurs in many nursing homes, it is preventable. It is the nursing aide 's responsibility to provide quality and comfortable care, free from abuse. Many people are not aware that there are several other types of abuse in addition to physical abuse and many are not aware of the signs. If abuse should occur, anyone who suspects or witnesses the abuse is responsible for reporting it. Knowing the types of abuse, being aware of the signs, and reporting incidents are all ways to prevent abuse in nursing homes.
Nursing Home Abuse With over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country, abuse and neglect has become a widespread problem. Even though some nursing homes provide good care, many are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Most residents in nursing homes are dependent on the staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming- almost all their daily care. Unfortunately, many residents in nursing homes today are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. They are often isolated, ignored, and deprived of social contact and stimulation.
According to Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services, there are three things that elder abuse can be classified as. It can be classified as abuse, neglect, or likelihood of serious physical harm. While all of these classifications sounds quite similar, there are some subtle differences. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services defines abuse as " the infliction of physical, sexual, or emotional injury or harm including financial exploitation by any person, firm, or corporation" ("Protective Services For Adults," n.d., para. 4). Elder neglect is "the failure to provide services to an eligible adult by any person, firm, or corporation with a legal or contractual duty to do so, when such failure presents either an imminent danger to the health, safety, or welfare of the client or a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm would result"("Protective Services For Adults," n.d., para. 4). Abuse, neglect, as well as likelihood of serious physical harm are all reportable by law. ("Protective Services For Adults," n.d).
Rodríguez, M. A., Wallace, S. P., Woolf, N. H., & Mangione, C. M. (2006). Mandatory reporting of elder abuse: Between a rock and a hard place. Annals of Family Medicine, 4(5), 403-409. doi:10.1370/afm.575
Every American should have the right to live free from the fear of abuse. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. The National Center on Elder Abuse Administration on Aging (NCEA) stated, “In the United States, the 2010 Census recorded the greatest number and proportion of people age 65 and older in all of decennial census history: 40.3 million, or 13% of the total population. This “Boomer Generation” effect will continue for decades”. This suggests that with the population of elders increasing, the abuse of elders will grow much higher. Elder abuse if defined as intentionally causing harm to a vulnerable elder by a caregiver or someone they trust. There are five main types of abuse; Physical, sexual, neglect, emotional or psychological
Of nursing home staff interviewed in 2004, nearly 40% admitted to committing at least one psychologically abusive act toward a resident and 10% admitted to physically abusing a resident in the preceding year.[1] Not only are nursing home residents at risk of being abused by their caretakers but they are also at risk of being restrained, which may lead to a form of abuse. With five percent of the elderly population, or one to two million instances of elder abuse occurring yearly there is no doubt that elder abuse deserves serious consideration.[2]
Matthews, J. L. Beat the Nursing Home Trap: A Consumer's Guide to Assisted Living and
Mature Market Institute. (2011). The MetLife Study of Elder Financial Abuse: Crimes of Occasion, Desperation and Predation Against America’s Elders. Retrieved December 9, 2013 from https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/studies/2011/mmi-elder-financial-abuse.pdf
In order to understand how abuse has an effect on the elderly we must first understand the different types of elder abuse. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can aid in understanding the different forms by defining what each form entails (CDC, 2016). Physical abuse is the intentional use of physical force that results in illness, injury, pain, functional impairment, distress or even death. Neglect can be defined as failure by the