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Ethical Issues on Elder Abuse with Loved Ones

Elders being abused is nothing new. As a matter of fact, it has become a huge concern for everyone. As age makes a person slow, weak and helpless, he/she becomes more prone or vulnerable to all sorts of elder abuse. This is not only about physical abuse, but financial, emotional and gross neglect of their well-being as well. With such individuals simply not being in a position to take care of themselves, it is of paramount importance that these issues related to abuse be looked into with great concern.

To the surprise of many, there is an ethical angle to this issue as well. Ethical issues in elder abuse are generally related to conflicting social, cultural and religious reasons. These have been written about below to create greater clarity over the entire issue.

Why does elder abuse happen?

Let’s face it. It is a growing geriatric problem. Though it is hard to have a fair estimate of the scope of this problem, one certainly does not need any sort of evidence to prove that this is happening all across society. The need of the hour is an informed and enlightened social policy that increases awareness to the greatest possible extent. Elder abuse and social work go hand in hand, in the sense that the malaise can only be cured and countered when social awareness is raised around it and people are educated about it.

Social initiatives to prevent this from happening also include looking far beyond adult protective service records and examining financial, medical, social and long-term care areas for possible difficulties and solutions. One of the biggest challenges of elder abuse is that with each census, the malaise seems to be growing in volume and complexity and is becoming increasingly hard to counter.

What does ethical violation mean?

Ethical violation in the context of elder abuse is related to victims being deprived of autonomy and self-determination and beneficence, being subjected to malfeasance and injustice and paternalism. Elders being abuse and denied the right to autonomy and self-determination implies that the concerned individual is not being allowed to make free and informed decisions. Beneficence is working in someone’s best interest.

In terms of beneficence, ethical violation as far as elder abuse is concerned implies the patient’s welfare being completely neglected. Malfeasance deals with failing to take necessary action. The opposite of this is non-malfeasance which means the principle of doing no harm. Ethical violation as far as paternalism is concerned means limiting the freedom of another person. All of this is gross injustice being meted out to people with whom age is a handicap.

What are the different types of elder abuse?

The most widely observed forms of elder abuse include physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, neglect, abandonment, and financial abuse. These are the main challenges of elder abuse that have to be dealt with in order to eliminate this malaise for good. Signs of physical abuse include bruises, burns, dislocated joints and sprains. Signs of sexual abuse include bleeding from the genitals, bruised genitals and intense pain, pelvic injuries and bloody and stained underwear.

Psychological abuse with elderly people entails humiliation, insults, intimidation, isolation, and name-calling. Elderly neglect entails not allowing them the freedom to carry out daily activities and depriving them of access to good hygiene, medical care, nutrition, hydration and protection from danger. Financial abuse of elderly means undocumented spending of their finances, missing belongings and property, unaccounted for ATM withdrawals, canceled checks, eviction notices and evidence of unpaid bills.

Elder abuse and social work are interrelated in the sense that if the former has to be eliminated entirely, the latter must be done at a massive scale to create as much awareness about this as possible.