How to Spot Elder Abuse in Your Senior Friend or Family Member

When you think of Senior Abuse your first thought is probably a lonely lady sitting in a decrepit nursing home room, with bruises on her face right? Although that could happen, Senior abuse takes many silent forms. As the Seniors grow in number in the United States and Canada, the instances of Senior abuse has also grown. In this article I will discuss several forms of abuse, the symptoms, how to report it, and what we can do to prevent it in our loved ones?

Being a former CNA (Certified Nurses Assistant) at a rehabilitation facility, I learned how to spot blatant abuse, and there are some things you don't even realize are abuse. I remember working for a certain facility, and remembering residents sitting on the toilet sometimes for nearly a half an hour, waiting to be helped up. I remember Nurses aides at feeding time when we would be feeding some of our Alzheimer's residents pureed foods, and nurses would mix all the food up into one big food pile.

I questioned this once as to why they do this, and their response was "They don't know the difference." This broke my heart, and this is why I am writing this information down,for others to learn from.

There are five common kinds of abuse: Physical, sexual, financial, mental, and neglect.

Physical abuse is battering or assaulting the patient and/or family member, and inflicting pain and injury (example bruising, bleeding, slapping etc.) Force feeding is also a form of physical abuse.

Sexual abuse is not as common as the other forms of abuse, but it does happen, and because it is not so common it is the most vital to recognize. Sexual abuse is any sexual activity the older person does not consent to, or cannot consent to because they are incapable of giving consent.

Financial abuse occurs when a anyone uses financial funds illegally and without the consent of the owner of the funds whether they be for personal gain or the gain of the owner of the funds.

Mental abuse comes when someone causes anguish or undue stress which alters the mentality of the patient or family member. (Threats, condemning the person, humiliating, and intimidating all fall into this category) For example, you witness a daughter talking to her elderly mother, and the daughter yells "Mom you need to shut up and listen to me for once because you are crazy and you know it!" The daughter makes the statement loud enough for everyone to hear it, thus humiliating her. This is Mental abuse. Even in private this type of statement would be construed as Mental abuse.

Neglect is the most gray shaded of all the forms of abuse, because it could be so slight,so subtle, you may not even know you are witnessing abuse. On a further note, forty to fifty percent of all abuse cases are self-neglect cases according to AARP. Self neglect is when someone is competent enough to care for themselves, but chooses not to.

Neglect on general terms is the withholding of goods or services or the failure to provide those goods or services in a timely fashion. Neglect is as simple as leaving someone in bed not turned 10 minutes late. Because of the neglect, a two-fold problem occurred; The lack of turning which is the neglect, then causes a pressure sore, which is physical abuse.

How do we recognize the signs of abuse, if we don't see it for ourselves, how do we protect our loved ones from abuse?

Some signs of physical abuse and neglect are:

1. Dehydration (sunken eyes, pale dry skin)

2. Loss of weight

3. Pressure sores (Bed sores)

4. Repeated "Unexplained" injuries to one or more parts of the body

5. Withdrawal from family and friends

Signs of Financial abuse are:

1.unusual banking such as transferring large amounts of money from one account to another repeatedly and in very short time spans.

2. If the caregiver only seems to bring up the financial status of the patient, and seems overly concerned with their assets.

3. Recent acquaintances that declare they "love" the person unconditionally, then isolate them from everyone else in that older person's life such as family members or long term friends.

4. Personal items are missing from the house (Antiques, money, jewelry ect.)

5. Signatures on check or withdrawal slips do not match that of the older person.

Signs of mental abuse are somewhat similar to the physical abuse signs, however, the sings may not be so apparent because there are no physical indicators. Signs of mental abuse are:

1. An acute onset of anxiety

2. Confusion,or disorientation

3. Thoughts of killing their self

4. Agitation, mood swings

5. Lack of eye contact

6. An acute onset of paranoia

Your next question is probably "What can we do to stop it?" There are a few things we can do. The most important is intervention. You can find the phone number in your local directory by looking up "elder abuse" in the blue pages. You can also reduce the stress load on the caregiver by making sure their are enough adequate replacement caregivers to take over if the primary caregiver becomes overwhelmed. Become familiar with AARP (American Association of retired persons). Their web site is www.aarp.org This is a very good step in learning more on elder abuse. Remember G.I.V.R. It is pronounced "giver" It is an acronym I made up to help reduce abuse in the rehabilitation center I worked at.

GET INVOLED!
IDENTIFY THE SYMPTOMS OF ABUSE
VOLUNTEER
REPORT ANY SUSPECTED ABUSE IMMEDIATELY
It could be the difference between quality of life, and an early death for some of our frail seniors who lost a voice in the community. Make a difference today for a better tomorrow for our Seniors.