Urgent need to address elder abuse

PETALING JAYA: There is an urgent need to address the issue of elder abuse, say frontliners like medical social workers, doctors and nurses who come face to face with such victims.

Senior citizens (aged 60 and above) make up 9% (2.77 million) of the country’s 30.49 million population. By 2030, the elderly will make up about 15% of the population.

While they do their best to counsel and help these elders, these frontliners would like clear-cut protection laws for the elderly, as there is for children.

Geriatrician Datuk Dr Rajbans Singh said that he had come across “quite a number” of cases of elder abuse among his patients.

“Cases go unreported because there is a lack of awareness about the concept of elder abuse.”

But he stressed that elder abuse happens because family members and caregivers lack knowledge and understanding of elderly care.

“In my 20 years as a geriatrician, I have come across many cases. A lot of the times, the abuse occurs not because the caregivers or family want to intentionally hurt or harm the older person but because they do not know how to care for them,” he said.

As part of their Prevent Elder Abuse and Neglect Initiative (Peace), a team of Universiti Malaya researchers will also run an intervention programme with a group of caregivers from Negri Sembilan.

“We will give them exercises to help them appreciate how difficult it is for an older person,” explained Dr Farizah Mohd Hairi.

The programme will teach care­givers to take care of themselves so that they can care for the elderly.

Apart from gauging the magnitude of the problem, a study by the group also looked into the risk factors and consequences of elder abuse, investigated the strain on caregivers (a contributing factor to elder abuse) and the education and training available to doctors, nurses and caregivers.

“Most primary care doctors and nurses have had no training on handling elder abuse cases and rely on the guidelines on child protection. Without any SOPs and laws specifically on elder abuse, most said they were just ‘guessing’ and didn’t know how they should respond,” said Peace leader Dr Noran Naqiah Hairi.

So far, Dr Noran and her team have trained some 150 doctors and 350 nurses in Negri Sembilan on dealing with elder abuse.