The Southland Times, Editorial
04/10/2011
OPINION: Let's not obsess about comparisons. Southland has the highest rate of reported elder abuse in New Zealand, but what really matters here is not whether this means we're the cruellest abusers, or the most diligent guardians when it comes to confronting a problem that's emerging only slowly from the shadows.
Nor should we dismiss the report because it turns out that only 18 of the 33 Age Concern centres nationwide report elder abuse.
We should look, instead, at what we do know. Which is that in the year to June, 74 of the 104 cases reported to Age Concern's Invercargill base, covering Southland and Queenstown, were confirmed as abuse.
Ugly. And there's scant comfort to be taken that it wasn't, for the most part, naked physical violence. Less than 2 per cent of the cases were of physical violence (Never laid a hand on her, your honour ... ).
Some 38 per cent were from the psychological abuse and neglect categories (His alertness comes and goes, your honour, and his needs really are simple...).
And look. Sixty per cent of the southern cases were financial abuse. Money and assets unjustly stripped by others, because they can, often in a calculated and sustained way. This can easily be portrayed as greed, justly so in many cases, although in others it may represent offenders succumbing to economic stresses of their own.
From the cases Grey Power Southland president Geoff Piercy has been called into, the financial abuse is often exerted through the misuse of power of attorney.
The betrayal of elder abuse is all the more hurtful because, in so many cases, it is less the work of some poorly paid resthome staffer as that of people's own family. Nationally, family are to blame for four out of five cases. In the south, last year, it was nine out of 10.
This in turn leads to a great deal of reluctance from the victims to complain, or to have a bar of any prosecution. This isn't just because of loyalty, or a sense of shame, either. Some family members haven't been above the emotional blackmail of linking acquiescence, or at least silence, to access to grandchildren.
Nationally, barely more than one third of abusers are primary caregivers. Up to half are adult children. And 65 per cent to 70 per cent are women.
You would struggle to find anyone who argues with the often quoted statement that how we treat our elderly is one of the tests of our fundamental decency, and health, as a society. Living up to that declaration requires many things, not the least of which is a willingness to collectively act on their behalf.
And these figures send out a strong message that we can't turn away on the basis that someone has family, so they'll be looked after as a result. By no means can this mean that the rest of us can wade fearlessly into other people's family life; but neighbourliness and friendship count for a lot.
It's not only at a one-on-one level that we can help, either. Just bearing in mind the particular vulnerabilities of the aged can open many avenues to be helpful. Kudos, in that regard, to Trudy Allison, who went public over a nasty little computer scam (an Indian-accented caller claiming to be a Microsoft analyst, needing access to home computers to fix a serious problem). You would like to think that very few people would fall for such a hoax, but Miss Allison rightly figured that the elderly might be more at risk, so she went public on that basis.
SOURCE: STUFF.CO.NZ
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