One of the themes that emerge in the book is elderly abuse. Elder abuse encompasses situations where a caretaker intentionally deprives an older person of the care or harms the individual that is under their supervision. The book points out that the caregiver might be a relative, family member, friend, employee of senior housing care or a health professional. In this regard, the elderly might face different types of abuse (Hillier & Barrow, 2014). Some of the common issues include physical harm that may envision shaking and hitting, sexual abuse that might consist of forced nudity and rape, psychological and emotional abuse that might consist of humiliation and verbal harassment. The elderly might also be faced with issues that are related to neglect and the failure to access adequate care. Finally, these individuals might have financial problems. These problems might occur at different levels in the life of an older person. Therefore, it is critical to have a better understanding of their occurrence.
The Impact of Psychological and Emotional Abuse on Elderly Well-Being
The need to identify these types of elderly abuse arises from the need to mitigate them. In this book, the author points out various signs and symptoms that individuals should look for while seeking to identify elderly abuse. Besides, understanding these types of abuse can help to get data on the prevalence of violence in the United States. Without having the indicative scores, most of the elderly might be suffering in silence. Some of the recent statistics show that about 2 to 3 percent of the women said that they had experienced some form of emotional or financial abuse (Hillier & Barrow, 2014). However, most of them might be suffering from the injury, yet they do not know the ways and the approaches that they can use to overcome the problems. It, therefore, becomes imperative to look at these issues from the diverse angles because it can provide a way to find solutions.
One of the things that the course has helped me to learn is to be able to identify the challenges that older people experience. As individuals grow, several changes occur to their bodies and their being. These issues often affect these individuals as they become more depended on other people to survive. However, the challenge arises from the fact that they are grown people who have their minds as opposed to children. While their needs often increase the society tends to shelve them off and thus to make them experience several challenges. From the course, I have learned that older adults experience an exceptional level of psychological and emotional abuse (Friedman et al., 2019). Most caregivers often fail to take an interest in the psychological needs of these people that they are caring for. Unfortunately, this is the time that this individual is in dare need of mental and emotional support. The focus of most caregivers is only to provide for the physical demands of the population. Therefore, most of them end up suffering even in some of the individual care facilities.
Enhancing Elderly Care through Comprehensive Public Policy
Another critical issue that I have learnt is that there is a need to think of public policy in dealing with the issue of ageing. The current policy in the country does not seem to focus on more efforts to addresses the probable challenges that the elderly might encounter. The current facilities that are designed to care for the elderly do not seek to focus on the challenges and the risks that they exposed to. Besides, the policymakers are not alive to the indicators of abuse among the elderly, and this has made it hard to develop policies that can seek to address the challenges. What has changed throughout the training is that I now understood that there are several complexes issue those changes as one age (Friedman et al., 2019). The lack of understudying of these changes makes many of the elderly people to be exposed to various dangers to their health and their mental wellness. I have also learnt that older adults are at risk of mental health problems that arise from the poor care they get. I do think that there is a need for society to be taught on the steps that they can take to care for the elderly.
In conclusion, the care for the elderly is a complex process and endeavour. However, understanding the key aspects that determine the responsibility of the elderly could be the best way to go about this issue. There is a need for the entire society to be part of the intricate process of learning how to take care of older adults. My thinking about the issue of concern for the elderly has changed through the course of learning. I now know that I need to take an interest in learning the key indicators of stress among the elderly. I should also participate actively in training individuals within my society to care for the elderly. I do even think that should be involved in the process of changing the policies by offering my views on issues that society should focus on when caring for the elderly. Being entirely about these issues could not be the best solutions.
