Mon 28/01/2008
Age Action Ireland has expressed serious concern about the level of elder abuse in Ireland.
The organisation was responding to figures from the HSE, which revealed that its dedicated elder abuse officers dealt with 927 cases of abuse last year. Gardai were consulted in about 100 of these cases.
Age Action pointed out that these figures did not cover the full year, as only a few of the 26 elder abuse officers have been in their posts for the last 12 months.“From our experience of working with older people, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Over 900 referrals during just a number of months in 2007 would indicate that the problem is considerable in Ireland”, said Age Action’s Eamon Timmins.
Elder abuse can take several forms, including physical, financial, psychological or sexual. It can also take the form of active or passive neglect.
The figures from the HSE also confirmed the suspicion that in cases of elder abuse, the main abuser is often a family member. Furthermore, the vast majority of older people are abused in their own homes.“It is interesting to note that while 92% of alleged abusers investigated in 2007 were family members, just 17% of the cases were referred to elder abuse officers by family members. This would seem to suggest that other family members know or suspect that the abuse is occurring, but fail to do anything about it”, Mr Timmins said.
In cases of elder abuse, he added, doing nothing ‘is not an option’. He highlighted the fact that many older people who are being abused are afraid to speak out themselves for fear that they may be taken away from their carer. However the experience of many elder abuse officers is that once a complaint is made and the officer makes contact, the abuse ceases. This is often because at this point, the root problem can be addressed, e.g. the carer may be provided with additional community support or training to help them cope.“For older people being abused, the 2007 figures show that their problems are not unique and that help is there to stop the abuse”, Mr Timmins said.
He urges anyone who suspects that an older person is being abused, to contact their local HSE
office for a contact number of their local elder abuse officer.
SOURCE: Irish Health
No comments:
Post a Comment