Physical abuse is not only confined to intimate relationships, but to all relationships. Elderly people are also vulnerable to abuse. Approximately 6% of the elderly population suffer abuse. The Irish Health Service Executive indicates that 37% of referrals for elder abuse were on behalf of men and 63% on behalf of women in 2007. 35% were substantiated and 42% remained inconclusive. The data collected was incomplete because the data collection processes had not been fully developed until 2008, but they show that at least 14% of elder abuse is physical, a number that matches international statistics.
Imagine you are a ninety-year-old person confined to a nursing home. Imagine how frail you feel. Your physical strength has gone. Your eyesight is failing. You no longer have any interest in reading. You are dependent on others even for a drink of water. Imagine you have dementia or Alzheimer’s. You have regressed to childhood. You want to go home to see your mother, your father, or your grandmother. Imagine how helpless you are. Unable to defend yourself. Physical abuse of the vulnerable highlights how cowardly abusers are. It is difficult to believe that people assault, mug, beat, whip, punch, and slap elderly people. There are many instances of the elderly being choked, kicked, pinched, bitten, and spat at. Cases have occurred of old people being subjected to force-feeding, hair pulling, and even burning. We often hear about elderly people being restrained inappropriately and manhandled when moved. Carers overmedicate to render them incapable of being ‘troublesome’, and impose curfews as punishment.
The Irish Health Service Executive estimates that at least 20% of elderly people suffer from physical neglect that includes lack of supervision or monitoring, inappropriate housing, inadequate provision of food and water, lack of assistance with eating or drinking, insufficient clothing for the weather, and abandonment. Add to this list delays in receiving medical assistance, careless administration of medicines, lack of help with hygiene or bathing, incorrect body positioning that leads to skin damage, and lack of help for mobility. Neglect can also include lack of access to a toilet, ignoring requests to be taken to the toilet, inadequate changing of diapers, and so on. Many of these abuses are particularly relevant to nursing homes. Those dealing with the elderly in nursing homes should respect them, and love them however difficult and cranky some may be. Irish people have been outraged by recent media revelations of elderly people suffering physical and other types of abuse by home care providers, who are grant-aided by the Health Service Executive. Concerns about lack of training, vetting and regulation of these companies have been well aired in the media. Abuse is not only about power and control, but also about respecting the person’s humanity, and in the cases highlighted, the elderly were shown scant respect.
Indicators of elder physical abuse include sprains, dislocations, fractures, and broken bones. However, it is important to look for patterns or clusters of indicators because some of these signs may be the outcome of accidents, and not abuse. Burns from cigarettes or hot water, and abrasions on the arms, legs, or torso that resemble rope or strap marks are particularly noteworthy. The following bruises are rarely accidental: bruising on both arms or both inner thighs, wrap around bruises that encircle the arms, legs or torso (indicating physical restraint), multicoloured bruises (indicating that they were sustained over time), and signs of traumatic hair and tooth loss. Expressions of pain and difficulty with normal functioning of organs may indicate internal injuries.
Adapted from Jim O’Shea’s book Abuse. Domestic Violence, Workplace and School Bullying published by Cork University Press
PSYCHOTHERAPISTS IN TIPPERARY
THERAPISTS IN TIPPERARY
ABUSE
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DEATH OF A CHILD
