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...
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…
