Elder Abuse Intervention Report

The assignment discusses the importance of intervening in cases of elder abuse, providing protection to vulnerable individuals. It outlines the role of community support services in addressing this issue, including assessment and intervention principles. The report also highlights the need for strict action against workers who are abusive to clients, ensuring that elderly people receive adequate care and live with dignity and respect.

Elder Abuse Scenario

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A- ASSESSMENT REPORT...............................................................................................1
1. Identifying the harm or risk being experienced by Joycie Collins and discussing indicators
of harm supporting analysis........................................................................................................1
2. Outlining issues of complexity that heighten risk and discussing protective factors for
mitigate risk level........................................................................................................................2
3. Linking case scenario with relevant evidence, theory, research and literature.......................3
4. Outlining proposed intervention.............................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................6
PART B INTERVENTION REPORT.............................................................................................6
1. Providing brief summary of the safety assessment provided in Part A..................................6
2. Interventions that protect Elder abuse.....................................................................................6
3. Intervention reflecting current legislation, policy and practice development.........................8
4. Own values, beliefs, attitudes about domestic violence..........................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Elder abuse has significantly increased in recent times. Present report will be based on
abuse to older individual named Joycie who has back pain and requires medication and also her
spinal operation was failed. Alex and Meg are to family members who do not treat her well.
Report will focus on indicators of harm supporting case and types of abuses will be discussed.
PART A- ASSESSMENT REPORT
1. Identifying the harm or risk being experienced by Joycie Collins and discussing indicators of
harm supporting analysis
Abusing of senior citizens is a major social issue in Australia and all over the world. As
defined in World Health Organisation, abuse to the old citizen is a kind of action, unethical
behaviour by a person who is in the position trust like adult child, other family, member, friend
etc. When such action or behaviour occurs that will cause physical, emotional or mental harm or
damage to, or loss of, assets or property. Such kind of abuses on elder are criminal offence under
the elder law in Australia. As used by Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], the person or
citizen of Australia above the age of 65 is considered as older.
Any kind of abuse and neglect on elder may affect an adult's health, happiness and safety
(Gallione and et.al., 2017). These abuse or neglect takes in many forms that may also violate an
older adult's basic human right and are of several types of crime also, these types of abuse
includes:
Physical abuse: It includes violence, inappropriate restraints or any kind of rough
behaviour that may cause or result in an injury as well. The indicators of physical abuse are
welts, internal and shaking injuries, strangulation and bruises.
Emotional abuse: it includes the threat or any treatment or behaviour that may offends an
older person sense of dignity and their self-respect. The indicators of harm include isolated,
verbally abused, emotionally rejected.
Financial exploitation: This type of abuse involve improper use of adults funds, money or
assets. This is clear from the fact that Joycie has noticed that Alex, her grandson is using ATM
card and withdrawing money for his own use. The indicators of harm include using funds
without permission etc.
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Caregivers neglect: It involves failure of caregiver to provide adequate and proper
facilities to aged people or refusing to obligate their duty (Risk Factors. 2018).
2. Outlining issues of complexity that heighten risk and discussing protective factors for mitigate
risk level
There are various issues that could heighten risk in elder abuse which are as follows-
Carer stress
The caring of elder person is stressful. This is evident from the fact that Joycie had recent
failed spinal operations and chronic back pain also prevails. It becomes stressful for carer and
triggers abuse.
Dependency
It also triggers as dependency leads to stressful situation for carer. It can be referred to
case study that Joycie is unable to do bathing all alone and requires assistance from Meg but she
refuses the same (Indicators of harm. 2018).
Family conflict
The conflict ongoing in the family is another reason which would heighten risk of abuse.
It is because stressful situation often increases abuse. It also flows from generation to generation
as family violence continues and risk prevails.
Isolation
The client lacks social support and leads to increase in abuse such as misuse of funds or
removal of money from ATM card. Denial of right to access funds while, elder may be capable
to maintain affairs on his own.
The protective factors that could mitigate risks are as follows-
 Considering aged individual to make them familiar through human rights.
 Geographic profile of victim can be analysed through violent crime mapping.
 Dialling and contacting the nearest centre for seeking help in event of abuse.
 Familiarity with elder abuse laws and regulations prevailing in the country.
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3. Linking case scenario with relevant evidence, theory, research and literature
Joycie is ill-treated by her daughter, Meg and also her grandson, Alex. It is required that
elder abuse should be stopped in effective manner so that elder may be able to attain assistance
and help in day-to-day activities quite easily. It can be supported from literature. According to
Wangmo, Nordström and Kressig (2017), elder abuse is mistreating elderly people by family,
friends, caregivers and professionals which may be vulnerable to them. It is defined as knowing,
intentional abuse being done to elders. At first, signs of abuse may not be seen but as time goes,
symptoms of dementia are seen. Mental stress and dilemma starts occurring which clarifies that
elder abuse prevails and individuals become mentally-disturbed.
Baker and et.al., (2017) says that core element to harm of elder abuse is 'trust expectation'
of older individual towards abuser. The older persons have relationships with abuser such as
spouse, family member, children, friends that older individual relies on getting services. The
abuse may take place at homes or institutional settings such as long-term service providers who
are responsible for providing care facilities up to a major extent.
Thus, it is evident from literature review which suits the best scenario of Joycie in
effective manner. Physical abuse by Meg, psychological or emotional abuse by Alex supports the
scenario as it is reflected that abuse was done to Joycie.
4. Outlining proposed intervention
Intervention is required to be done so that interest of victim take precedence over those of
abuser or community. It is essentially needed that focus with a view to ensure safety about and
ongoing protection of abuse may be provided quite effectually. It can be analysed that proposed
intervention for eradicating abuse is of provision of community support services such as full
range of community support services such as housekeeping help, continence needs, day-to-day
assistance needs so that older may be able to avail services in effective manner. Moreover, abuse
would be controlled in a better manner or it will be prevented up to a high extent.
Assistance with shopping or transport is with regards to offering practical help to service
user. Joycie will be provided with community support services which will assist her and care will
be taken quite comfortably. Thus, with reference to the case, measures will be taken in order to
prevent harmful abuse to Joycie with ease. The key worker may be an Aged care assessment
service worker or social workers which will be responsible for coordinating services to be
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offered to victim (Yunus, Hairi and Choo, 2017). This means that such proposed intervention
will provide Joycie with better services and abuse will be stopped.
CONCLUSION
Hereby it can be concluded that elder abuse must be eradicated as it has become bigger
concern nowadays in Australia and all over the world. The outcome that can be generated from
above report is that Joycie, older individual has rights to get assist in effective manner and as a
result, Alex and Meg both have responsibilities to provide adequate care to her. On the other
hand, indicators of harm are analysed and protection to be offered are also provided.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baker, P. R and et.al., 2017. Interventions for preventing elder abuse: applying findings of a new
Cochrane review. Age and ageing. 46(3). pp.346-348.
Gallione, C. and et.al., 2017. Screening tools for identification of elder abuse: a systematic
review. Journal of clinical nursing.26(15-16). pp.2154-2176.
Wangmo, T., Nordström, K. and Kressig, R. W., 2017. Preventing elder abuse and neglect in
geriatric institutions: Solutions from nursing care providers. Geriatric Nursing.38(5).
pp.385-392.
Yunus, R. M., Hairi, N. N. and Choo, W. Y., 2017. Consequences of elder abuse and neglect: a
systematic review of observational studies. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse.
p.1524838017692798.
ONLINE
Indicators of harm. 2018 [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.secasa.com.au/pages/defining-and-identifying-child-abuse/indicators-of-
harm/>
Risk Factors. 2018 [Online] Available Through: <https://www.eapu.com.au/elder-abuse/risk-
factors>
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INTRODUCTION
Intervention will be proposed in order to prevent from risk of elder abuse. Moreover, how
proposed intervention will affect current legislation, policy and practice development will be
explained. Furthermore, how intervention will be monitored and likely outcome of it will also be
discussed.
PART B INTERVENTION REPORT
1. Providing brief summary of the safety assessment provided in Part A
The safety assessment provided with relation to above case scenario can be provided that
Joycie, victim of elder abuse is required to be provide intervention with regards to community
member support so that she may be prevented from any kind of abuse. Alex and Meg who are
her grandson and daughter respectively should behave responsibly and should provide assistance
to day-to-day work such as getting her off to church once a week not monthly basis. Alex should
not steal or misuse her bank accounts as she runs out of back pain medicines and spinal operation
was failed recently. On the other hand, Meg who is age of 47 should not physically abuse her
mother and should assist in bathing in and out. Thus, responsibilities must be accounted for else
safety measures must be provided for.
It means that safety precautions such as seeking help from the nearest centre must be
taken. Along with it, human rights and elder abuse punishments needs to be clarified, if
responsibilities are not performed (Wong and Waite, 2017). Moreover, with the help of violent
crime mapping, event of abuse can be extracted and as a result, safety will be offered to Joycie
quite effectually. Furthermore, it can be assessed that by intervention of community support
services, elder abuse may be restricted in the best manner possible. By seeking help of such
intervention, rights and obligation of service users should be protected and as a result, protection
will be provided to people. This means that risk level could be reduced and caregivers will offer
proper care facilities to people in effective manner.
2. Interventions that protect Elder abuse
The interventions that provide the rights of the older people and the people working with
them. According to the case study provided there are various interventions which will help the
clients or family from abuses and it includes provision of community support services (Burnes
and Lachs, 2017). This services are provided in the form of home nursing, housekeeping help,
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continence needs and meals on wheels. This services will help the family or client to reduce the
chances of abuse. These services are provided by the community care which work for protecting
the cases regarding elder abuse. The provisions regarding the community support services
includes case management due to the complexity of the situation. The workers that provide this
services are aged care assessment service worker, social worker, community service provider
worker.
Joycie is the client which require an assistant for various activities of the lady as it is
abused by the family members and to reduce this abusiveness the community support service
provider must provide them with the assistant to provide protection from the elder abuse. Joycie
require a person to support in getting in and out of the bath but Meg(Grandson) will not help
Joycie every day. The service provider will provide assistant for Joycie in order to reduce the
chances of abuse which will affect the health of the person.
The community service provide for monitoring the progress will make sure that the client
is satisfies with their service and also the abusiveness is not happening (Lachs and Pillemer,
2015). Moreover, the service provider will make sure that the client is communicating its
problem to the assistant for further improving service of the community support service and can
also identify if the abuse is still happening with Joycie by the assistant provided for its protection
then legal case against the community support service must be done in order protect the lady
from further abuses.
The abusive activities by the assistant is not known to the community support services
then Joycie must provide them information to take strict action against the person providing the
service. The community support service will help the elder to fight for the rights and to take strict
action against the person that are responsible for the abuse (Intervention. 2018). Community
support services will help the victim in reducing the cases of further abuses by providing
protection to the victim. The service worker must provide the senior about the progress of the
victim to identify the recovery of the client for its betterment.
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Also, the staff provided with the responsibility for taking care of the client must provide
information to the senior if any problem occur to take the action immediately. The community
support service provider will ensure that proper monitoring of the progress is reported by the
worker working with the elder to make sure about the recovery of the client.
3. Intervention reflecting current legislation, policy and practice development
There are various legislation and policies that are developed which reflect the provision
of community support services. The legislation which are related to community support services
include various act such as harassment act, domestic violence act etc. which are related to the
given case study. The intervention principles relating to the provision of community support
services reflect that this legislation will help the service provider to protect the elders from
abuses on the basis of this legislation which are made for protecting the people from harassment
and domestic violence.
Community support services provide care worker for the patient to asses them
individually. There are various modification required for aged care legislation to allow provision
for new serious incident response scheme. Also, it is required to develop elder abuse strategy by
the department of human services. Furthermore, Aged and community services Australia
(ACSA) believes that the elder abuse is an important public policy because of increasing cases
relating to elder abuse. ACSA support development of National plan to protect the rights of
Older Australian and believes that a broad research program must be included linked with the
policies and practice outcomes.
The services provided by the Community support service must follow the laws and
legislation relating to the elder abuse to protect them from further abuses (Beach and et.al.,
2016). The policy formulated to protect the elders includes developing options for a national
elder abuse hotline, developing measures to assist coordination, communication and sharing of
practices. The community support service provided reflect the legislation, policy and practices as
it provided protection to the elder ones according to the legislation made to protect their rights
and secure them from the different types of abuses.
4. Own values, beliefs, attitudes about domestic violence
In my opinion domestic violence arises in the caring situation and to protect the elder
from abusiveness the community support service must provide proper protection for them
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otherwise will affect my response towards their values regarding their values for protecting the
rights of the elder people.
Also, I believe that domestic violence is caused on the basis of discrimination relating to
age, gender, education, race etc. From the interventions and assessment included in this study it
can be identified that Joycie was affected by the domestic violence due to the belief of the
society about gender discrimination and thus the intervention principle relating to the community
support service provided the services relating to protection for elder abuse which affected my
response.
I can say that the intervention principle selected to protect the elder from abusive
activities will provide protection towards the rights of elders and they will be able to live their
lives with dignity and respect. According to my belief the women cannot handle the domestic
violence and cannot raise their voice against them so to provide them, protection this
intervention will help them to raise their voice against the family or domestic violence The
values of the community support service provide that they will provide protection to the elder
people and if the worker assigned to work for the elder is abusive to the client which will affect
my response and thus strict action must be taken towards the worker.
CONCLUSION
This assignment has included the intervention report that has provided intervention to
protect the elder from abuse. Moreover, intervention is also detailed by which community
support services will be availed. Furthermore, values and attitudes are also analysed which
summarises that adequate care should be imparted to elder people.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Beach, S.R. And et.al., 2016. Screening and detection of elder abuse: Research opportunities and
lessons learned from emergency geriatric care, intimate partner violence, and child
abuse. Journal of elder abuse & neglect. 28(4-5). pp.185-216.
Wong, J. S. and Waite, L. J., 2017. Elder mistreatment predicts later physical and psychological
health: Results from a national longitudinal study. Journal of elder abuse & neglect.29(1).
pp.15-42.
Burnes, D. and Lachs, M. S., 2017. The case for individualized goal attainment scaling
measurement in elder abuse interventions. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 36(1). pp.116-
122.
Lachs, M. S. and Pillemer, K. A., 2015. Elder abuse. New England Journal of Medicine. 373(20).
pp.1947-1956.
Online
Intervention. 2018 [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.eapu.com.au/elder-abuse/intervention>
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