Göz Ardı Edilen Bir Durum: Yaşlı istismarı ve etkileyen faktörler

Abstract

Along with the growing elderly population in the world, elder abuse has attracted attentia and begun to be investigated Elderly abuse is defined as "a single or recurrent inappropriate behavior that causes damage to or destroys the elderly in any relationship that is a trust expectation". The social, physical, psychological and economic processes that the individual must deal with the aging process puts the old person in great trouble. In this process, giving the necessary support to elderly people falls into the family members at first. However, when elder abuse is evaluated, it is seen that the elderly are mostly exploited by family members and are generally exposed to emotional, physical, economic and psychological abuse. The overwhelming majority of health professionals focus on child abuse, which has often led to neglect of elder abuse. In fact, abuse is a preventable problem that hurts and wounds the elderly and leads to psychosocial problems. In this review characteristics of social life such as living alone, psychological distress/depression, social isolation/low social support, and demographic characteristics such as living in rural areas, gender, education level, low income level/poverty, presence of chronic disease and features of caregivers are determined as the factors affecting the elderly abuse. With this review, it is aimed to increase awareness on elderly abuse, the factors affecting the abuse and the responsibilities of the nurse.

Forensic Medical Perspective of Elder Abuse

“…Abuse, which can be encountered in all societies and cultures at different economic levels, is not limited to the family or the general population but is also a serious social problem that manifests itself in the form of physically and psychologically harming and taking advantage of the elderly, which can be encountered in institutions providing health services and social services [1][2][3][4] .…”