Nowadays, the increasing population of the elderly aggravates the aging problem over the globe. These older adults needed caring and health care from their family members or their caregiver. However, the situation of the elderly getting neglected or abused is becoming more serious. Various reasons can lead to this. In this essay, caregiver stress theory and social exchange theory explain the behavior of promoting violence toward older adults.
First of all, abusing older people is common. From a cultural factor perspective, the elderly may be afraid to speak up about the abuse they received from others. This shows that they may have a barrier to seeking help from others, and there can be several reasons behind this behavior. For example, when the elderly get abused by their family, they may be afraid that if they report the family abuse case, their family may be arrested, which violates the elderly's perception of wanting a “family to stick together.' When the elderly get abused by their caregiver, they may be afraid to speak up since they worry about getting more serious consequences from the abuser (NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital,2006). Alternately, people choose to abuse older adults because they stereotype the elderly as the type of people who are weak, fragile, and dependent ('Elder abuse,' 2020). Therefore, when they abused their victims, the elderly cannot defend themselves and the abuser could escape legal liability.
Secondly, the reason why abusing the elderly is frequently taken place these days is that when the elderly turn to seek help, they may have an actual barrier. For example, when the elderly try to seek help from social workers or local social agencies, they dragged the case out. They did nothing, which in fact could not help reduce the elderly from getting abused situation. Moreover, older adults are usually 65 years old or above. They are often retired, which means they may be disconnected from society. This led to social isolation and the situation that even though the older adults get abused, they got 'no one to talk to.' Nevertheless, as the older generation may have a smaller chance to receive an education, they may not know anything about seeking help. The situation above would greatly hinder the effect of reporting abuse in elderly cases.
Caregiver stress theory and Social exchange theory will be used to explain the phenomenon of abusing older adults.
Caregiver stress theory means that caregiving's objective burden would be the most important stimulus that led to perceived caregiver stress. It implies that when a caregiver perceives higher stress and pressure, it would stimulate the caregiver to give a more inefficient response, resulting in them abusing the elderly. According to a review, factors that would increase the risk for verbal aggression or caregivers' stress included having lower job satisfaction, loss of 'immunity' to the difficult work environment, and being involved in drug or alcohol dependence ('Caregiving and elder abuse,' n.d.). Caregivers who could not develop and sustain 'immunity' to aggressive patient behavior may have a higher risk of abusing the elderly.
Next, the Social exchange theory refers to the result of an exchange process. The exchange is to enlarge benefits and reduce costs, and when the risks outweigh the rewards, people may abandon the relationship (Cherry, 2020). For example, if the caregiver or elderly’s family perceives that they deserve rewards for taking care of that elderly person, abuse may occur if such rewards got denied. With the sense of imbalance in the relationship and the violation of social expectations for independent adult behaviors, the perpetrator will try to restore some sense of control by using violence or threatening the victim (Abolfathi Momtaz et al., 2013, p. 182-183). This once again proved the theory since most people consider the elderly as a 'burden' or 'liability'; hence if they do not get enough 'rewards' they think they deserved to get, they will turn their aggressive behavior towards their victims-elderly.
A solution to elderly abuse cases is needed to prevent the tragedy from happening again.
For society, I think the adult protective service agency or social service agency should act more actively because most of the elderly are passive. Suppose the local agency could do more social services to take care of the elderly. In that case, it could help to solve the problem of elderly abuse since social services help to alleviate the stress and pressure the elderly's family and caregivers receive. However, the responsible service agency may not have enough capital or resources to help all the elderly victims, resulting in a negligible effect on the elderly abuse case.
Moreover, I think the government or social service agency should set up hotlines for the elderly and people to provide information or referrals in case they get abused or the elderly around them got abused. This hotline could act as a deferring effect towards the abuser since if they abuse the elderly, they will get arrested and have to bear legal liability. Alternately, the elderly may not report their abusive caregivers or family members because of their 'family concepts' that family issues should be kept secret, causing the hotlines ineffective.
Finally, I think there is a need to set up some psychological programs for the abusers since they are the key factor that the elderly get abused. Setting up psychological programs could help to tackle the problem at its roots, for example, teaching the abuser to strengthen their immunity when taking care of their elderly or changing their mindsets that the elderly are not their 'liability.' This could help to reduce the risk of elderly abuse happening again.
In conclusion, due to social and cultural factors, the elderly are getting abused these days easily, unethical caregivers abuse the elderly just because they are stressed, and people abuse the older relative since rewards and risks are not balanced, which is a very critical consequence of not having enough protection towards the elderly in the society. Therefore I think the government and responsible agents must tackle the problem and try to reduce the number of elderly abuse cases.
References List
Abolfathi Momtaz, Y., Hamid, T. A., & Ibrahim, R. (2013). Theories and measures of elder abuse. Psychogeriatrics, 13(3), 182-188. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyg.12009
Caregiving and elder abuse. (n.d.). PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4961478/
Cherry, K. (2020, February 22). Understanding social exchange theory in psychology. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-social-exchange-theory-2795882
Elder abuse. (2020, June 15). WHO | World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/elder-abuse
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. (n.d.). ELDER ABUSE: WHEN A FAMILY MEMBER CAUSES HARM. https://nyceac.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/When-a-Family-Member-Causes-Harm.pdf