Elder Justice Act Research Paper

Choosing a long-term care facility can be very difficult because of incidents of abuse and/or neglect reported against care facilities can be overwhelming. For example in “Ending Elder Abuse: A family guide”, Diane Sandell lists many elder abuse incidents from her files such as: neglect of decubitis ulcers led to infection, sepsis, gangrene, and death. Facility failed to provide necessary diabetic diet; improper insulin administration, insulin overdose; dehydration and death. Resident left alone in chair in shower room fell, became paralyzed from neck down. Many reports of pinching, rough handling, slapping, yelling, threats (2000). It is believed that abuse is most likely to occur if the caregiver not only finds the work difficult but also (1) works full time, (2) cares for young children, (3) is poor, (4) feels little affection for the older person, (5) finds the elderly person very difficult, and (6) gets no support or help from others (Macionis, 2005). Although there is no excuse for abusing elderly Americans, it is still very prominent in today’s society. Diane Sandell explains in Ending Elder Abuse, that her 91 year old mother was beaten by a long-term care facility employee in the middle of the night for reasons unknown. It is stated that her mother died 6 weeks after the incident, unable to recover mentally from the abuse (2000).

Elder abuse includes physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as well as neglect, exploitation and abandonment of our older generation (Falk, 2012). The people that cause these injuries include the elderly person’s own family and staff members of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, medical rehabilitation facilities and hospitals (NCOA, 2017). There is approximately 1 in 10 older adults that have experienced some type of elder abuse in the United States (NCOA, 2017). Within these staggering numbers, only 1

Elderly abuse made its first appearance in national scene in the late 1970s. However, the proper efforts to help vulnerable elders began at least two decades before the 1070s. This is when protective

Elder Justice Act has made it possible and easy to detect signs of elder abuse by creating programs to assist and aid older victims of abuse, and prosecute abusers. California has passed laws making elder abuse a civil liability, and violation of the laws will subject the perpetrator to criminal liability (Stimmel Law, n.d.). According to California Advocates For Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) (2017), criminal elder abuse “occurs where any person who knows that a person is an elder and willfully causes or permits that elder to suffer, or inflicts unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering on the elder. It also covers situations where a person willfully causes or permits an elder to be placed in a situation in which elder’s health is endangered” (para, 1). While civil elder abuse refers to intend physical abuse, isolation, abduction, abandonment, financial abuse, or any type of elder mistreatment resulting in physical harm, pain or mental suffering of an older adult (CANHR, 2017). The State of California Department of Justice is composed of three programs designed to prosecute elder abuse. First, is the Violent Crime Unit, this unit investigates and prosecutes physical elder abuse committed by individual employees against patients in elder care facilities (The State of California Department of Justice, n.d.). Second, the Facilities Enforcement Team, the team investigates and prosecutes

Everyday thousands of senior citizens and people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia suffer from abuse by a caregiver. Most of the abuse is in the form of emotional or physical abuse, but there are also a number of different types of abuse including financial abuse. The abuse can either take place in a medical setting such as a nursing home or hospital, or it can also be done by the victim’s own family members. These senior citizens are mostly targeted due to the fact that they are mentally incapacitated; they do not have a very strong short term memory, and sometimes they do not have the ability to talk to another individual about how their caregiver has been abusing them.

There are have been many cases of nursing home and elder abuse nation wide and all around the world. One case that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland that involved a man who worked in a long term care facility and hit one of his residents.(Lee, 2013) This resident was an 84 year old man. This man was only caught

The Elder Justice Act was passed on March 23, 2010 as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) as the first piece of federal legislation to allow funds to address elder abuse, neglect and exploitation nationwide (Federal Laws, 2015). Part I of the Elder Abuse Act is the Elder Justice Coordinating Council made up of federal government representatives charged with the responsibility of coming up with programs for the promotion of elder justice. They have to provide recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on the issues of abuse, neglect and exploitation of the elderly. Then there are 27 professionals from the general public who are to give recommendations to the Coordinating Council as well. Part II of the Elder Justice Act talks about funding and enhancing long-term care. Long-term care is important because you need programs committed to training long-term staff,

WEEP is both unique and promising because the program focuses on education of the elder and their caregiver simultaneously. This combined learning experience will strengthen the elder-caregiver relationship, increase financial knowledge, while improving awareness of fraud and exploitation, thus leading to increased reporting and more prudent behavior. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services outlined in the Elder Justice Roadmap (PBS, 2014) ways in which elder exploitation can be combated through awareness, education efforts to support caregiver(s), and supportive education resources in the community. The Roadmap suggests that there should be better support for the tens of millions of paid and unpaid

Abuse can happen to anyone, but elderly adults residing in nursing homes are more vulnerable and have a higher risk for abuse (Rasansky Law Firm, 2006, para. 1). Elders are among the fastest growing in the population, and because of this many more elderly

This is not a problem which has evaded notice by the government. Most states have initiated laws to protect the senior citizen population, which range from background check requirements for prospective elder care workers to additional penalty assessments for crimes committed against persons over 62 year old. On the federal level most acts are targeted at sponsoring organizations that respond to crimes against the elderly. The Elder Justice Act coordinates federal elder abuse detection and prevention programs and the Older American Act provides funding for the National Center on Elder Abuse. Although it is a positive sign that the government has in general recognized or acknowledged the issue, it does not seem that these actions have done very much to slow down this abusive trend. One reason why the problem continues is because defrauding the elderly appears to be a relatively easy and riskless crime to commit and when

The Older Americans Act (OAA) helped our more elderly population with a broad range of social programs in the United Sates. These programs assist with Elder Justice and Elder Abuse, mental health, caregiving, nutritional assistance, evidence-based programs, benefits counseling, and health aging. Each state receives OAA funding based on the percentage of people that are 60 and older. I do believe that this program to many older Americans in our country and it provides programs and services that many people can use. Also, this program provides caregiver service to those who reach the age of 70 and above. I feel that the OAA is a good plan to have when it comes to helping our older population. Research indicates that people are living longer,

This scholarly journal looks at elderly abuse in general. It talks about different ways one can notice that the senior is being abused and what to do about the abuse. It also describes different reasons why the abusers abuse the elderly. It says how elderly abuse can be very difficult to notice and it is also difficult to help the seniors. The article then describes the difficulties that seniors have when they are abused. It talks a little about senior homes and how the elderly are treated by the nurses. It also gives some specific examples of abuse and the role of the government in this situation. This article is very opinionated and the author expresses her views on the topic very clearly.

However, elder abuse is also common among the millions of elder Americans who reside in nursing homes. A study where 2,000 nursing home residents were interviewed, reported that 44% of the residents had been abused and 95% said they had been neglected or seen another resident neglected. They also state that 91% of nursing homes lack adequate staff to properly care for patients and 36% are known to have been in violation of elderly abuse laws (National Center on Elder Abuse). This information is extremely alarming. If these facts have already been uncovered, why is it that no one is doing anything to prevent this from happening to others?

Elderly abuse in nursing homes in America is an uprising issue. Elders make up a large portion of our population and they deserve the equality. This issue is very important because eventually this could affect you personally, or a loved one in your family. I stand for better environments in these nursing homes and find it terrible that elders get treated so poorly. The reason the number of reports on elder abuse has gone up so rapidly in the past decade is because the number of elders has drastically risen. There is an increase in the number of elders not only because Americans are living longer than ever before, but also because the next generation of senior citizens is larger than ever before. It has been predicted

After analysis and interpretation of this article, I believe the primary objective is emphasized to be an overall didactic approach towards influencing the federal government to expand public awareness and thus evoke greater intervention towards creating preventive strategies in elder mistreatment. Overall, the message being portrayed is Americans in general should come to the realization that elder abuse is a systemic, collaborative issue that affects multiple stakeholders. For example, the provoked abuse can lead to nursing home admissions at rates four times faster than the norm rates of non-victims, financial abuse can lead to greater stress and reliance placed on the family, caregivers can overall suffer both physically and mentally from the extensive care needed by the victims, and Medicare (and other programs) will spend more than they already are- on the results of further abuse. From knowing the latter, the proposal includes a federal strategy to acknowledge the overall abuse by directing the president to encourage both private and public sectors to get involved in action and policy specifically targeting the financial exploitation of elders. Nevertheless, not only do financial domains need to be investigated, but overall all aspects of elder abuse; thus, the plan is set out to provoke- as mentioned in the former, overall public awareness which can cause a greater change. This is said to be done by encouraging the new president, Trump, to talk and