Elderly Maltreatment

Elderly Maltreatment is a problem that needs to be addressed by the nation as a whole. Every single day, older adults and adults with disabilities are suffering from abuse, neglect, and exploitation; often caused by people they know. The abuser is usually the individual’s spouses, family members, acquaintances, or an health care professional in a position of trust such as a caregiver. Under Georgia state law, abuse is considered to be physical Abuse, emotional Abuse, neglect and financial exploitation. Based on statistics from the National Center on Elder Abuse, the number of older adults who are abused each year is close to 5 million and this is a huge problem .In this paper I will be discussing elderly abuse and revised changes to the legislation

Presently, elder abuse is defined by state laws, but state definitions vary from one state to another. There are sections regarding who is protected, who is considered mandated reporters, descriptions of reportable behavior, and the requirements for investigation of the allegations. Mandatory reporting laws for healthcare professionals exist in all 50 states for confirmed cases of elder abuse and 43 states are responsible for reporting when abuse is suspected. Currently, only 30 states have legal punishment for failure to report suspected elder abuse, although every state should this repercussion in place. Some states require that if a licensed professional chooses not to report elder abuse that their license be revoked. The laws created for elder abuse was created with the laws of child abuse in mind. I think that the laws are weak in structure on issue such as financial abuse, because children rarely had money to utilize. We must educate each other concerning the laws, and legislation of elderly abuse.

The barriers in adhering to the laws of elderly abuse and mandate reporting.

A variety of factors serve as barriers to reporting elder abuse such as lack of education, denial, apprehension of making the situation worse, desire to maintain healthy family relationships, and numerous court appearances.

This training should include how to recognize when an elderly person has been abused. Continuing Education class should be mandatory for all Nursing homes and other residential staff. I would revised the mandatory reporting law requirements to include anyone that has witness or been informed of elderly abuse..As the law currently stands a person that is not included in the categories of public employee or employees of an agencies that would contact with potential victims have no legal obligations to report. Secondly I would define elder abuse and neglect within the statute and identify to whom maltreatments should be reported to. Penalties should be imposed for failure to report elderly abuse. The stature presently in place only deals with reporting the abuse and it fails to provide resources to follow up after filing the report. I would outline what to do once the report has been made .I agree that it can be difficult to prove that elder maltreatment has occurred but we should screen and document every bit of suspicious information whether it is verbal or physical. The proper protocols for reporting abuse, elder abuse screening, assessment of risk factors, and documentation should be posted in all health care facilities including nursing homes. There is a need