By Andrew
The following are some of the questions asked about reported elder abuse cases:
· It is a one-sided version of events;
· The ‘victim’ was not abused; he has a live after the abuse;
· It is a one-sided version of events;
· The ‘victim’ was not abused; he has a live after the abuse;
· Why can’t the ‘victim’ extract himself/herself from the situation?
· Why can’t the victim overturn the POA given?
· The reporter has a hidden agenda; in reporting the case.
· Are you a blood relative of the ‘victim’.
· You are reporting ‘abuse’ in your place of work to detract from your own inadequacy as a carer.
· Get on with your own life and mind your own business.
· It is family dynamics; leave them alone. Even the law cannot do anything!
It is a sad, sad scenario of denial and attempts at minimizing elder abuse.
Elder Abuse reports are almost always – one sided. In most cases, the abusers never attempted to present their own defense. There are no defense for elder abuse and neglect.
The fact that an elder abuse victim tried to live as normal a life (after the abuse) as he could does not mean that there was no abuse. Very often, more personal information are not revealed in a report, in reverence of the privacy rights of people involved. So, we should not take that as a sign of deceit or lies.
If a victim of elder abuse could remove himself/herself from the abusive situation there would not be any elder abuse case. There are a range of reasons why the victim could not do that; or report the case himself/herself.
Fear of abandonment of the carer or family member involved; has often been quoted as a reason why many victims of elder abuse did not report the case. They may not even realize that they had been abused. Many just take the abuses as their fault somehow – in the way they brought up their children. So, fear is a very powerful deterrent of non-reporting of elder abuse, by the victims.
Regarding the withdrawal of a Power of Attorney from the abuse – It is not that simple. How could you remove someone who has POA, if you were not the person who have given that power? There may also be other reasons for not been able to remove a POA once it was given. If the person given the POA is the only carer for the victim; fear of ‘withdrawal of care’ is too strong a deterrent for the victim.
Ignorance of their rights is another possible reason why a victim did not withdraw the POA from the abuser.
Motives of Reporters of Elder Abuse
This is another hurdle that reporters tend to be confronted with. What is your motive? It is a reason why many people do not want to be involved in reporting elder abuse. This is exactly what happened in the early years of child abuse. People just do not want to be the ‘bad guy’ in reporting the case.
Are we so materialistic that we assume no one can have an altruistic view or a social conscience?
Many carers at care facilities are reluctant to report abuses in their work place because of the fear that management might find fault/excuses to sack them. Hard to believe; but true.
‘I have a young family, please remove my name from your report - as potential employers do not like to find out that I had report elder abuse at my previous workplace’. (this is from a visitor to my site)
Why are you reporting the case? Are you a blood relative?
These questions were thrown at a reporter of a case. Again, do we need to have an ulterior motive, other than the desire to help someone whom you believe to have been abused? Just wondering why only 1 in 5 cases of elder abuse are reported? This is one of the reasons why people are reluctant to get involved.
Family Dynamics or Elder Abuse
Elder abuse by family members, of course, is part of the family dynamics. Do we say the same thing of child abuse; and look the other way?
If someone’s human rights are abused, or had been abused –physically, emotionally, financially… should we report the abuse or give the excuse of ‘family dynamics’ and leave the matter at that.
People who abused their elderly parents/relatives must be stopped. Let us not give a lame excuse and let that sorts of thing happen.
Old age is inevitable, for most of us.
Steps that we take to ensure the safety and dignity of the elderly, may be one day be our savior.
Let us not be complacent or selfish in seeing elder abuse as a non-issue.
Today, we accept all reports of child abuse as serious and warrant investigations and actions. Perpetrators are brought to justice and jailed. Why do we not take elder abuse seriously. And, we do not give the excuse of ‘family dynamics’ to not take action to report a child abuse case.
Elder Abuse and neglect is a serious violation of human rights.
Let us not turn away from the very principles that make us human.
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