Elder Rights Abuse: A Case Study

Elder rights abuse has received some attention throughout the years, but still comes as a rather unknown in America’s collective societal conscious. As the subject of death and dying has come into psychology there are set models by which this social science has come to reprimand this reality, and, in a continual manner, to improve elderly conditions. According to a claim from an elder abuse non-profit called HelpGuide.org, “more than half a million reports of abuse against elderly Americans reach authorities every year, “ also noting that a great many more may get unreported (Robinson, 2015). In facing this reality, this paper will go into the complex issues that come to make up this current global issue but will come more directed toward the …show more content…
According to a U.N. report one of the complex systems is socioeconomic factors that put the elderly at risk for abuse comes as “restructuring support for the elderly” and, “depiction of the elderly as frail, weak and dependent” (World Health Organization, 2002). The same article had come to explain many sources of issues for the elderly, such as their fragile bodily state to which can not only get injured easier but also require to heal for a longer set time, another issue that may prevent an individual from confronting issues as they fear for their bodily states due to this new reality. The new bodily and social realities are hard to cope with and families adjusting to these new realities may fail, but another source of dependence also comes to light with these changes in elderly: financial predators and scams. A social and financial myriad seem to combine with each other that make the elderly especially vulnerable to financial abuse. The …show more content…
The categories range from scams dealing with telemarketing, internet, mortgages, health care, prescription drugs, funeral and cemetery fraud, and more. Tips range from knowing one’s place with all these subject matters (i.e. what health insurance they have), being an informed consumer, not buying from an unfamiliar company, not paying for a “free” prize, and a considerable amount more. As one can understand from the range both in what may get preyed upon and what one must do to avoid these that the financial sector is a vast model to which requires understanding, something that the elderly may not come to receive in cases where neglect can come. Issues such as these may seem easy to protect oneself to those born after the 1970’s, but disinformation, neglect, and assumptions may come to attribute to the creation of elder abuse. One such way misinformation and minimization can tend to occur in the elderly comes due to the onset of degenerative diseases, both physical and cognitive. For instance, those who have a disorder akin to dementia may get unheard for issues they are facing, requests minimized as occurring to dementia or requests that can come unable due to dementia. Another point that comes along with this, and the prior paragraph, is as to how the onset of these diseases can get attributed to any form of abuse that