Your thoughts on elder abuse

Nurses General Nursing

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I would like to get your thoughts and feelings on a subject that in the past was given little attention, but is now getting the attention that it deserves: Elder Abuse.

Any insights or things that in your practice you have found helpful in discussing and recognizing this form of abuse.

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try http://www.cdc.gov

http://www.ncvhs.hhs.gov

http://www.ahrq.gov

and your state health department. Elder abuse is a topic being researched by government agencies, state and federal. Good luck on your search.

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Specializes in Inpatient Acute Rehab.

My thoughts on elder abuse....

It is WRONG!!!!

Anyone who participates in elder abuse should be strung up and hung out to dry!!! If it weren't for our elders, we would not be here!!!

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Previous post deleted....

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I like these words from a another post; "Same circus different tent."

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mandy, i understand your frustration with what you mentioned. i too, share these frustrations and was quite vocal w/the administration, nurses and cna's...my concerns about pt. care ultimately lead to my termination which is now being legally pursued.

elder abuse takes many different forms; there is the blatant physical abuse; mental abuse; emotional abuse;and there is neglect; and it too, sickens me that these people who are in their 'golden' years are treated w/such little respect and reverence. and mandy, if a pt. falls 3 times in one week, i certainly hope the one of the nurses would pursue labs for this woman, to r/o uti or something else...i am sure that staffing is the least of it now.

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I think it's horrible and chicken sh*t to put it bluntly. My gma. was a victim of this by a "caretaker". She stole from her, slapped her, put a pillow over her head, depleted what little $$ she had, etc. Luckily the woman got 50 years ! I hate to hear of it happening to anyone, but I have a feelign it's more common than we think :(

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I think it's horrible and chicken sh*t to put it bluntly. My gma. was a victim of this by a "caretaker". She stole from her, slapped her, put a pillow over her head, depleted what little $$ she had, etc. Luckily the woman got 50 years ! I hate to hear of it happening to anyone, but I have a feelign it's more common than we think :(

how is your grandmother doing? and yes, i have to agree....our elderly are vandalized and brutalized FAR TOO OFTEN.... :angryfire the one advantage w/ our elderly is that they are amazingly resilient. i hope your grandmother is in good hands.

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It absolutely breaks my heart that anyone would treat elderly people badly and I could go on forever on what I really think of those people and what ought to be done to them!

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Elder abuse is WAAY too common. I hear posters say REPORT- well, BTDT. Until the agencies that investigate this have more teeth and laws changed, it really doesnt do much good. First really obvious case I had as a caregiver was really blatant. I was doing homecare, the assignment was respite for a cranky 92 year old Portuguese speaking lady...bathe, feed and general supervision. Lady was basically independent except for bathing. Well, lady starts refusing to bath (the reason Im there) I let the family know. Loving daughter :rolleyes: comes over and the fight is on: lots of shouting in Portuguese and daughter threw Mom out of bed, strips her nude and yanks her into the tub. I was a new caregiver and reported to my agency what had happened and that I had personally witnessed all of the above and that the dtr had struck her mother in front of me. Agency calls in APS and the police get involved, I was interviewed, the family called the agency and accused me of making up my report. Anyway........no charges were pressed because the elderly lady admitted my account was true, but said she would NOT testify against her dtr. Nothing happened, no APS supervision, Mom went back to the same environment. My opinion......APS is a worthless toothless entity. I do still report things on occasion, but only to cover my ***, not becuase I think anything else will be done.

Second particularly egregious case: a loving familt :rolleyes: was going on vacation and needed temporary help to "look in on" Mom 4 hours a day. Mom was confused, got lost trying to find the front door to let me in to her mobile home, an extreme fall risk, there were several of us working for this lady, and we each had to get her off the floor, had no soap or cleaning products in a home that was extremely filthy (could not see the pattern of the lino floor in the kitchen) very little food in the house (appeared malnourished) very little bedding or clothing on the premises either. The poor lady had not been bathed in who knows how long,either. She was incontinent and could not stand in the shower. She apppeared to have advanced CHF, dementia and some sort of chronic pain problem. Anyway, we all complained to the agency that it wasa unsafe to leave this woman alone. The agency tried to negotiate with the family to increase the time we were there: no dice/too expensive. This is from a family that owns a beachfront condo in Calif :angryfire Anyway, the inevitable happened, the lady fell and couldnt get up, we dont know how long she was down. The aide on that day had her taken to the ER for evaluation. The doc was hip to the situation, and wrote orders that she could not be returned home until she had 24/7 care :chuckle The family was pi**ed off and returned home, put Mom in a nursing home. The clincher: about 6 months later I pick up the local paper and surprise! here is this family. Our local paper has a section each week where they feature amateurs and their hobby cars. This family was featured, and the amount they had in this hobby car would have paid my agency fees for 24/7 care for 6 months. :angryfire I still ask myself HOW DO THESE PEOPLE SLEEP AT NIGHT!!!

Laura

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"if a pt. falls 3 times in one week, i certainly hope the one of the nurses would pursue labs for this woman, to r/o uti or something else...i am sure that staffing is the least of it now."

She was sent out to the hospital, she's okay......she's a fall risk r/t dementia..

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:o APS reminds me of the way the state handled things many years ago. I worked in one of those "home-like" apartments for the elderly. Restraining a patient was illegal in that setting. The owner told the aides to restrain the confused patients at night to prevent falls. I told the state to show up at 10pm and they would find many patients in restraints. So what did the state do? They showed up at 8pm. I asked the state if they had found anyone in restraints at 8pm? They said they didn't know if anyone was restrained or not. The aide told the state that the patients were asleep. The state said they didn't want to wake the patients by turning on the lights and checking for restraints. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire
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how is your grandmother doing? and yes, i have to agree....our elderly are vandalized and brutalized FAR TOO OFTEN.... :angryfire the one advantage w/ our elderly is that they are amazingly resilient. i hope your grandmother is in good hands.
she is OK, I guess. These incidents took place in her home (house) and shortly after she had to go into a nursing home. She couldn't afford a "real" nurse so basically just got someone who was looking for work and a place to stay. I really hope the people in the nh are nicer than this crazy woman was. I was surpised a couple of mos. ago when I found out she got 50 years in the slammer. Kind of scary, she's exactly my age. What a waste !
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