Elders Abuse Assessment
Question 1
The Elder abusive Evaluation Tool.
The toolkit is used to dig out the hidden crime that the elders are unwilling to talk about. If there is torture and abuse among the elderly, they tend to suffer in silence for diverse reasons it may be due to fear as well as shame and embarrassment. Some elders too old and therefore, they already have lost their voice and hence verbal communication has been reduced to impossible. They cannot be taken seriously and in many events they are termed as incompetent. This toolkit enhances the capability to converse about issues related to abuse and safety.
The Geriatric Depression Scale.
This tool has been designed and tested comprehensively with the old people. A short questionnaire maybe with ten to thirty questions with yes or no reply is composed. The questions are in reference to how the patient has been feeling over the past few weeks. Questions asked have high correlation with symptoms of depression.
I used the above tools to obtain information from an elder who happened to be my neighbor. She had to point the pictures on the tool to indicate a yes or no answer she identified a picture with thumbs up for yes and thumbs down for NO.
.The yes and no answers were very import since there are time the elders was not able to give correct information (Ahn, 2016). I faced challenges as I had to use the questions that would not require descriptive answers. It can be challenging if you fail to help the elder answer your questions. For instance I avoided asking ‘who slapped you?’ instead tried to ask ‘is it your son that slapped you?” I had to look for a private interview location (Baumann, 2016). One should not allow the caregiver to be around or the relatives. If those that abuse her are present she may not give correct answers due to fear. The tools however, were not for investigation purposes; they were mainly meant to give information that can guide us to know whether the elder is been mistreated or not (Moon, et al. 2006). This tool was made with the help of older people and put through a lot of tests with them. A short questionnaire is made up of maybe ten to thirty questions that can be answered with a yes or no. The questions are about how the patient has been feeling over the past few weeks. There is a strong link between the questions asked and signs of depression.
Question 2
From the information obtained the elder appears to be mistreated by the caregiver. She admits that she feels in danger. On the physical injuries I noted strange unexplained injuries, burn marks and unexplained bruising this indicates a high possibility of assault. On financial abuse, I noted that some bills were unsettled and unsatisfying explanations were given. There was unclear disappearance of personal belongings. Huge bank withdraws also confirmed that financial assault was evident.
When using the elder evaluation kit I noted the elder was depressed she frequently shed tears during the interview process. I was able to come to a conclusion that the elder was segregated. From her answers the elder is really stressed. This is due to mistreatment that she receives from the caregiver (Pearsall, 2005). She has admitted that she often cries, she is also slapped, she is compelled to eat and also locked up in a separate room. Such conditions accelerate stress. However depression does not come along with aging. If depression is discovered, with appropriate treatment, there are high chances that depression is reversible. Depression has rave effects if it is left untreated. It can have consequences of cognitive, physical, functional, low quality lifestyle, social impairment, and prolonged medical illness. If the condition persists it can result to suicide in long term basis. The interviews indicated that the elder needed help from the society as well as those in charge with the custody of the elderly people. I had to start the rescue initiative so as to rescue her.
References
Ahn, J., Lee, B. J., Kahng, S. K., Kim, H. L., Hwang, O. K., Lee, E. J., … & Yoo, Y. S. (2016). Estimating the prevalence rate of child physical and psychological maltreatment in South Korea. Child indicators research, 1-17.
Baumann, C. (2016). The relationships between abuse, work social support, value-rich work and intrapersonal coping resources in employed women (Doctoral dissertation).
Moon, A., Lawson, K., Carpiac, M., & Spaziano, E. (2006). Elder abuse and neglect among veterans in Greater Los Angeles: prevalence, types, and intervention outcomes. Journal of gerontological social work, 46(3-4), 187-204.
Pearsall, C. (2005). Forensic biomarkers of elder abuse: what clinicians need to know. Journal of forensic nursing, 1(4), 182-186.
