Elder Abuse: Issues and Remediation

The topic of elder abuse is relatively unknown and not talked about among the general public. Traditionally, society values one’s life the younger that person is on the grounds that the younger person has most likely not experienced life to the fullest extent as much as the older person has. The point of bringing up this way of thinking is not to refute it but to point out that a product of this societal mindset is that the elderly population is often forgotten about or placed on a lower priority level when considering medical and safety issues. This is a major factor that contributes to the vulnerability of older persons, who often must give up their autonomy due to the aging process and learn to live while being dependent on a caretaker. Elders are often in situations where they are isolated from the rest of the world and place their trust in their caretakers to help them live out the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, the process of aging and becoming dependent opens up the opportunity for this vulnerable age group to be taken advantage of and abused. The National Council on Aging reported that about 1 in 10 elderly Americans that are 60 years old or older have been abused in some capacity, and only about 1 in 14 of these cases are reported (NCOA, 2020). As the world population ages, these statistics face the risk of getting worse and exposing more elders to abuse while less and less abuse cases are reported to authorities. This presents the opportunity for elder abuse research to guide healthcare institutions that are related to caring for the elderly on how to care for and prevent elder abuse from occurring; however, this research is quite limited in comparison to the research, treatments, and prevention programs developed for other types of domestic abuse. The aim of this paper is to create an overall understanding of elder abuse as a whole and get a sense of the state of elder abuse so recommendations can be made on how to proceed in bettering the current issues elder abuse faces.