Elder Abuse Unreported
By Tracy Breton
The Providence Journal
August 16, 2008
Doctors in almost every state are required by law to report suspected elder abuse of their patients. But hardly any of them do, even if they fear that their silence may subject an elderly person to continued abuse at the hands of a caregiver.
Physicians report just 2 percent of the elder abuse and neglect cases recorded each year by state protective service agencies, according to medical and legal experts and recent articles published in medical journals. One study, published in 2005 in a journal focusing on geriatric medicine, said that the actual figure may be even lower.
The lack of physician reporting is a huge problem, experts say, because as the elderly population continues to grow and doctors become ever more pressed for time in meeting the demands for care, more elder abuse will go undetected.
Doctors are often the only people outside an elderly victim's home who have contact with the victim. If they don't blow the whistle, who will?
"I think we have an ethical responsibility, a moral responsibility and we're shirking it," said Dr. Laura Mosqueda, director of geriatrics at the University of California-Irving College of Medicine, who is co-director of the school's Elder Abuse Forensic Center. "If you see signs that a person may have been abused, you need to ask: 'Has anybody hurt you? Are you afraid of anybody? How did this happen?' If the explanation doesn't fit with what you see, you need to probe further."
Every year, an estimated 2.1 million older Americans are victims of physical, psychological or other forms of abuse, according to the American Psychological Association. Congress said the number could be closer to 5 million. Most of the abused or neglected elderly live in the community -- not in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities -- and 90 percent of the time, the perpetrator is a family member, most often an adult child or spouse, according to the National Center on Elder Abuse.
In another study, published in 2006 in The Journal of the National Medical Association, a majority of the Michigan doctors surveyed said they were unable to recognize key risk factors for elder abuse, were not routinely screening seniors for abuse and were unfamiliar with signs of family violence. They also said they were unclear about how to report suspected abuse.
Dyer, of the University of Texas, said that when doctors do report mistreatment of an elder, it is most often "actual physical abuse." They are less likely to report elder neglect or financial exploitation. "Doctors need to be made aware that if they have a suspicion of financial exploitation, patient abuse or neglect, they must report," she said.
"Doctors need to become better educated when dealing with elderly patients," said Brown's Besdine, who has trained more than 90 doctors for careers in geriatrics. "Most of the abuse occurs in the process of giving care to needy, frail older people who are not easy to take care of." Oftentimes, he said, the abuse is committed by a family member who is stressed out and strikes out verbally or physically out of exhaustion or frustration.
Abridged
SOURCE: Kentucky Post
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