institutional elder abuse

Examples of institutional elder abuse in the following topics:

• Elder Abuse

  • The main types of elder abuse include physical abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect.
  • Elder abuse is further subdivided into domestic elder abuse and institutional elder abuse.
  • Domestic elder abuses are committed by family and friends of an older person; institutional elder abuse is committed by workers at residential facilities for elders, such as nursing homes.
  • Regardless of whether the perpetrator is a family member, friend, or institutional caretaker for an older person, a central theme throughout all of these different types of abuses is the relationship of dependency of elders with those who care for them.
  • Elder abuse can even result in death.

• Differential Treatment by Age or Ageism

  • Elder abuse is a serious problem in the U.S.
  • There are nearly 2 million cases of elder abuse and self-neglect in the U.S. every year.
  • Abuse refers to psychological/emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, caregiver neglect or financial exploitation while self-neglect refers to behaviors that threaten the person's own health and safety.
  • And elders who suffer from self-neglect have an even higher risk (up to 5 times higher) of premature death than do elders who do not suffer from self-neglect.
  • The higher risk of death associated with elder abuse effects both those who are physically and cognitively impaired and those who are more capable.

• Aging and Race

  • Before turning to the medical concerns that accompany aging, one should note that elders of different racial backgrounds also experience different frequencies of elder abuse.
  • Elder abuse is a general term to describe certain types of harm that are inflicted upon older adults.
  • The most common form of elder abuse is neglect or improper care for vulnerable seniors.
  • Unfortunately, this is usually inflicted by people whom the elder trusts and who are responsible for caring for the elder, such as family members or caretakers at elder homes.
  • Research indicates that black senior citizens are more likely to be abused than white citizens.

• The Older Years

  • While discrimination toward the young is primarily visible through behavioral restrictions, discrimination toward the elderly ranges from behavioral restrictions to physical abuse.
  • There are nearly two million cases of elder abuse and self-neglect in the U.S. every year.
  • Abuse refers to psychological/emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and caregiver neglect or financial exploitation, while self-neglect refers to behaviors that threaten the person's own health and safety.

• Age and Race

  • There is evidence that black senior citizens are more likely to be abused - both physically and psychologically and suffer greater financial exploitation than do white senior citizens.Further, recent demographic profiles suggest that social aging varies across racial groups, and demonstrates that minority elders (especially Hispanic and African American identified) typically enter later life with less education, less financial resources, and less access to health care than their white counterparts.Finally, researchers have noted that minority groups' greater likelihood of facing patterns of structural disadvantage throughout the life course, such as racial discrimination, poverty, and fewer social, political, and economic resources on average, create significant racial variations in the stages or age-related trajectories of racial minorities and majorities that may be observed at all points of the life span, and contribute to disparities in health, income, self-perceived age, mortality, and morbidity.

• Institutionalized Children

  • Institutionalized children may develop institutional syndrome, which refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills.
  • In clinical and abnormal psychology, institutional syndrome refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in mental hospitals, prisons, or other remote institutions.
  • The term institutionalization can be used both in regard to the process of committing an individual to a mental hospital or prison, or to institutional syndrome; thus a person being "institutionalized" may mean either that he/she has been placed in an institution, or that he/she is suffering the psychological effects of having been in an institution for an extended period of time.
  • However, there are a number of institutions specializing only in the treatment of juveniles, particularly when dealing with drug abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, anxiety, depression or other mental illness.
  • Deinstitutionalization can have multiple definitions; the first focuses on reducing the population size of mental institutions.

• The Transfer of Authority

  • These efforts can be both judicial and non-judicial, and refer to actions, policies or institutions that are enacted at a point of political transition from violence or repression to societal stability.
  • In the context of transitional justice, memorialization is used to honor the victims of human rights abuses.
  • They can also help to establish a record of history and to prevent the recurrence of abuse.

• Homelessness

  • Those at a higher risk of becoming homeless include veterans, people suffering from substance abuse or mental disorders, and the unemployed.
  • Individuals with substance abuse problems and mental disorders represent a large number of the homeless.
  • However, this perspective denies structural elements that contribute to both homelessness and substance abuse.
  • Prior to the 1960s, individuals with mental illness were frequently committed to long-term institutions, but deinstitutionalization closed these institutions in favor of community-based treatment.
  • Unfortunately, many people released from these institutions had no place to go and wound up homeless.

• Democracy

  • Many also institute measures such as the separation of powers, which divides executive, judicial, and legislative authority among different branches of government to protect against the possibility that a single government or branch of government could accumulate too much power and become harmful to democracy itself.
  • Although majority rule is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, without responsible government it is possible for the rights of a minority to be abused by the tyranny of the majority, in which a majority institutes policies abusive to a minority (for example, a racial majority may deny a racial minority access to education, housing, jobs, or other resources).

• Homophobia

  • Institutional discrimination involves the state apparatus.
  • If homophobic discrimination is institutional, it means either that non-heterosexual sex acts are criminalized or that LGBTQ individuals are denied the same legal rights as heterosexuals.
  • Although non-heterosexual sex acts are legal in the United States, LGTBQ people still face institutional discrimination because they are not afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples.
  • At times, this abuse can lead taunted individuals to take dangerous risks in efforts to prove a normative masculinity.
  • Describe the phenomenon of homophobia (both institutional and informal) and the implications it has for LGBTQ individuals in modern-day America