Policy Elder Abuse Is a Growing Issue.

Policy

Elder abuse is a growing issue. This issue has existed for much longer than it has received attention in the press. Some blessings of the 21st century include innovations in health care, medicine, and related fields. Many of these advances allow for people to live longer lives, extending their life spans. As more and more people around the world gain knowledge and access about health care and nursing that can prolong life, gradually, the general life span of human beings increases. There are more elderly people on Earth than previous decades, and perhaps centuries; these numbers will only rise exponentially in the decades to come. Therefore, it is important for people of all ages to cultivate awareness of the social, political, and legislative issues for the elderly. There are many elderly people now, and hopefully many of us will live to be elderly as well; thus, many of us who are children and adults, may find ourselves in situations where we know victims of elder abuse or we are victims of elder abuse. In the case of those who are the perpetrators of elder abuse, it is important for them to know about the laws and policies in place to prevent and penalize those who hurt elderly people, specifically in a health care situation.

Elder abusers are quite rarely prosecuted for several reasons, including the abuse of elders who are unable to effectively communicate or articulate the nature of their abuse and/or describe their abuser(s). Similar to abused children, women, and disabled persons, elderly people are targeted and threatened to keep them silent if they do have the ability to articulate themselves and readily identify their attacker/abuser. Elderly people can be threatened with very simple things such as access to the correct dosages of medications, access to go outside of their homes or facilities, access to see their families or friends who visit, even basic toiletries such as toilet paper or the threat of being ignored or deserted when they have a medical need (or emergency) are the things that abusers use to threaten elderly people to remain silent about the abuse. Skilled abusers of any group of people often know how to abuse in such ways so as to not leave physical, visible markings on the body. They can physically abuse elderly people in ways that do not leave marks and abuse them in other ways besides physically.

Public Expectations

Professionals across many fields as well as across many countries and cultures approach the ethical issue of elder abuse with the use of ethical models, frameworks, principles, and other guides with respect to the issue. There are a variety of approaches to this problem that include approach it from a staff perspective, from the patient perspective, from the organizational perspective, as well as from an industry perspective. People consider this issue of ethics with respect to topics such as social policy, morals, culture, organizational structure, legality, liability, religion, and many others. The institutions that seem to have the greatest success in tackling, eliminating, and preventing elder abuse use a combination of models, frameworks, etc. In tandem as a strategy.

Legislative Intended Impact

Social policy and legislation play a direct role in the creation and application of models and frameworks that prevent and penalize for elder abuse. Models are serve as protection and as a line of defense in the battle with ethical dilemmas in the field of nursing. Management can feel at more ease that their staff is acting within the same parameters in the workplace with adequate preparation for potential ethical situations, adequate education in how to access as well as take action in such cases. These models help protect the elderly patients from abusive staff in general as well as simply one or a few abusive individuals working in an ethically oriented environment.