I have seen that a healthy living environment can be formed by love, affection and care towards any human being. The infants, young and the old people are eligible for equal treatment; however I get disappointed seeing that the elderly abuse has been on rise. I see various people of all generations in my neighborhood, at the marketplace, institutions, nursing homes, hospitals, and government organizations and in all these places I can sense the negligence towards the elderly people. I feel the treatment given to the elderly people is not similar to the treatment given to the young people.
The elderly find themselves at the mercy of others to help them in daily chores. For example, the joint family that lives next to my house has two old people above the age of 70, one person suffers from arthritis, and the other person has amnesia. Though there are many people in the family everyone is busy in their work. These two people get completely neglected when no is around at home to help them either to go to the restroom, or go for a walk. They are constantly abused in one or the other way but they have not been able to tell it to their family members. Some old people do not acknowledge abuse, or they accept it because they feel they are failures because of the way they lived their lives or because they have become too dependent on others (Quinn & Tomita, 1997). An example of this dependency was when I saw an elderly woman being left alone in the crowded marketplace while her daughter-in-law was busy shopping on the other side of the road. The remorseful state of the elderly in America has been increasing due to the fact that adult children leave their own elderly people as some other people’s responsibility.
I believe that the elderly members must be given lot of care not only because they have worked for our country since a long time, but because of their helpless condition. Ageism is also considered as another form of a social discrimination like the racism and sexism. The elderly are neglected due to many reasons; one instance that I can think of is a case where the aged person denied signing on the check for the adult child’s expense and in turn the adult child started refusing any necessities of the old person and did not provide the basic inevitabilities like food, medicine, and shelter. I have known a few families that have thrown their elder parents from the house just because the parents refused to part with their money or any physical assets with the children. Many elderly people are financially exploited initially by the family members.
When I went for shopping last weekend, I saw an elderly couple at the billing counter trying to pay the bills and there was a long queue behind them. The old man was trying to take off the wallet from his pant pocket but he found it hard to remove it with his trembling hands. The cashier got impatient and moved them to the side rather than helping them. Even the people behind them did not care to help them. To illustrate on this point, there should have been a caretaker for this couple to help them as it becomes very difficult for the couple to help each other physically. Old age brings memory loss, low confidence, dependency on others, emotional challenges, and financial exploitation to name a few. For instance, some Alzheimer’s patients suffer from “sundowner’s syndrome,” a decline in cognitive capacity that is more pronounced later in the day (Streib, 2008). In such conditions the person can speak only in the daylight.
There is a need to review and update existing state criminal statutes dealing with physical abuse, sexual assault, neglect and financial exploitation of elders (Streib, 2008). According to me there must be a hotline, toll-free number in every state and city where the elders can call and report the abuse that they face at home, in the society or any other services that take care of the elders. I know that one day I am going to be old and I would not like to be treated the way the young generation treats the elderly now. I deserve equal treatment that does not depend on my gender role or my sexuality.
References
Quinn, Mary Joy., Tomita, Susan K., (1997). Elder Abuse and Neglect: Causes, Diagnosis, and Interventional Strategies. 2 ed, Illustrated. Springer Publishing Company.
Streib Victor, Aba. (2008). State of Criminal Justice 2007-2008. American Bar Association
