Unfair Treatment of Reporters of Elder Abuse
It is most disturbing that reporters of elder abuse cases to authorities in various countries, often resulted in the reporters themselves been investigated! Motives are questioned.
Why? Perhaps it is easier for authorities to suspect the motive of the reporter than to investigate the reported case.
I now know of several cases where the reporters of elder abuse have been suspected of ‘unsavory motive’ and investigated. One case is still ‘in progress’ after a few years of legal wrangling.
It is NOT encouraging for any potential ‘whistle blowers’ or reporters of Elder Abuse.
We need support NOT investigation into our motives.
Are there no one in our 21st century who can be considered generous and altruistic.
Have we become so materialistic that nothing done can be judged as an act of altruism or humanity?
For those in charge of various government programs in the fight to prevent elder abuse; please listen to us. How can you expect people in the community to assist, if you treat the reporters with suspicion and contempt? Let's face it, the victim often DO NOT report the abuses. It is often left to a caring relative, friend or neighbour. Do not wait till your department is called by the police or funeral house director before you act!
This post is not to discourage others in reporting elder abuse. It is just that some issues need to be sorted out by authorities regarding the health and safety of the elderly. In their next conference or staff ‘in service’ seminar; perhaps they can look at this problem.
We are currently gathering information on cases where reporters of elder abuse get investigated or called into question about their ‘motives’.
Please contact me via email if you have similar experience.
By Andrew
3 comments:
Yes, excellent point , this practice of the authorities to "Shoot the messenger" disheartens most people to come foward ! Maybe that's why Elder Abuse is the most un reported crime of our times.
As a nurse.......I've worked in various facilities where I noted and reported elder abuse by aides....only to be blackballed later as someone to "watch out" for. Personally, its wrong to attack anyone that cannot defend themselves, let alone understand why they are being attacked in the first place. My time has been spent with Dementia/Alzheimers pts .....now I'm involved with the hospice care. This is something that is happening nationwide yet little is done to prevent it. Excuses, like shortness of staff and too many patients (yes, the work load is hard esp when you may have 30 on a shift by yourself) and frustrations get the best of one....but they still need to figure out a system of adequate care so that the caregiver to patient ratio is met. Hope this made sense...but this issue is close to my heart and really needs to be addressed.
I wonder if the investigating agencies are smarter than fifth graders. They immediately interview the victim, who is mentally challenged and will not press charges as they are intimadated. So by the time they get to the perpetrator, they are well rehearsed on what to say to authorities, who are lulled into beleiving that family is only concerned about victims estate and that it might not be left when victim dies. The investigation stops there, rather that review financial info to verify that hundreds of thousand of dollars have been diverted as reported to agency in first place. Then to add insult to injury detective reports that a doctor would have to testify to victims mental capacity during the exploitation.
After I picked myself up off the floor from laughter at this comment, I asked, what makes you think the prepetrator, who has isolated the victim, would let a doctor evaluated the victim. Another ploy to drop case rather than investigate
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