Emotional Pain Caused by Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is more common and widespread than most people may imagine and its prevention is essential to protect our senior loved ones. The elderly need assistance defending themselves against harm as their physical and cognitive abilities decrease with age and those responsible for their care must take all available measures to both monitor and maintain their standard of care so that they remain as happy, safe and healthy as possible.

Those involved in the care and assistance of the elderly, whether family members, friends or health care professionals must constantly remain aware of their individual requirements and needs, which can be difficult for those with many responsibilities or who are caring for multiple patients. The frustration and anger that the caretakers may feel can turn into a more subtle and difficult-to-recognize form of elder abuse, which is the emotional mistreatment of the elderly. Emotional abuse can be challenging to determine especially in those seniors whose memory is spotty and whose medications cause unpredictable personality changes, but understanding emotional pain caused by elderly abuse can help.

There are some of basic types of emotional abuse to assist caretakers in identifying whether or not those under their charge are suffering from emotional abuse: verbal harassment, humiliation, intimidation, abandonment, deprivation and threats of punishment.

Verbal harassment is a form of emotional abuse that may include insults and criticism and cause the elderly victim to feel like a second class citizen, an idiot, or a worthless individual.

Humiliation can occur verbally and physically, in public or private and creates great emotional anxiety and stress in the victim.

Abandonment is a form of neglect wherein the elderly are deprived of regular social interaction, and results in loneliness, depression and further withdrawal from social situations.

Intimidation is similar to verbal harassment and occurs when the abuser coerces or threatens the victim in order to gain their compliance. Intimidation creates a state of panic in its victims.

Deprivation can include the withholding of attention, food, water and medication and can be categorized both as a physical and emotional abuse.

Threats of punishment, whether verbal or physical can prevent abused seniors from reporting any problems, so it is essential to watch for the basic signs of emotional abuse, which may include personality changes, emotional sensitivity, unprecedented self-deprecation or self-abuse, emotional withdrawal and direct reports of abuse.

If any of these signs appear to be present in and elder citizen, contacted both the caretakers in charge and a personal injury attorney experienced in dealing with the elder abuse claims.