The elders of a family are its guide. They have full-of-life experience, skill and living philosophy to give right directions to their inheritors. They never mislead family; rather they show the right path to protect us and our family. In return, they never wait for any kind of support from the inheritors. In many cases, it has been seen that after achieving the goal, some inheritors forget the elders’ contribution for their success.
But no one can deny that without elders’ support a person cannot stand strongly. A study reveals that the global population of people, aged 60 years and older, will more than double from 900 million in 2015 to about 2 billion in 2050. Elder abuse is predicted to increase as many countries are experiencing rapidly ageing populations. Rates of elder abuse have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Elder abuse can lead to serious physical injuries and long-term psychological consequences.
There are several types of abuse like hitting, punching, slapping, burning, pushing, kicking, restraining, false imprisonment/confinement etc. Similarly mental abuses are humiliating, verbal forms of abuse, constantly criticising, accusations, blaming, or nonverbal forms such as ignoring, silence, shunning or withdrawing affection etc. Also, financial exploitation involving misappropriation of financial resources by family members or strangers, etc, is making their life difficult and troublesome.
Forcing elders to take part in sexual activity against their will and various types of negligence depriving them of proper medical treatment are another major problem. Now-a- days, abandonment of elders is a matter of serious concern. Scars, broken bones, rope mark etc are the signs to identify the physical form of abuse against elders. Unresponsive or uncommunicative social isolation, suspicious or fearful signs may be the emotional abuse. In maximum cases, such emotional abuse go unreported which are most damaging leading to physical and mental health problems of elders.
The study also says that the risk of death for elder abuse victims is three times higher than for non-victims. An abuser can be a spouse, partner, relative, friend, neighbour, volunteer worker, paid worker, practitioner, solicitor, or any other individual with the intent to deprive a vulnerable person of his/ her resources. Additionally, past studies have estimated that between 16% and 38% of all elder abusers have histories of mental illness. As most of the abuses are occurring within the family, the abusers may be unemployed, may have criminal history, mental health problems, or history of abusing others.
Lower income or poverty has been found to be associated with elder abuse. Low economic resources have been conceptualized as a contextual or situational stressor contributing to elder abuse. Living with a large number of household members other than a spouse is associated with an increased risk of abuse, especially financial abuse. In most cases after abuse, the elders are hiding the problems. Elder abuse victims are often unwilling to report their abuse for fear of others' disbelief, loss of independence, of being sent to old age homes and of losing their only social support.
It can be prevented if the elders association at village or ward level will be formed. In the informal small conflict resolution within family or community, and monitoring of standard of care of elder persons in the families, the elder persons of the locality should be involved.
The mobile health team of nearest health centers may visit regularly to the home of elders for periodical health check-up and to monitor their psychological condition. It is needed to encourage elders to raise voice against maltreatment and negligence by their family members using various laws for the protection of elder persons.
(The writer lives at Bijipur, Brahmagiri, Puri; M-09438432023)