Report Details Elder Abuse in Britain -- Part One of Two

"Neglect and ill-treatment of the elderly is a severe abuse of human rights. It is a serious betrayal of trust by the very people upon whom older people depend for care." 

Andrew Dismore, chairman, joint committee on human rights, quoted in today's edition of the British publication, The Guardian

The headline in Wednesday's Guardian could not be more blunt-- "A catalogue of abuse: report demands law to protect elderly in hospitals and care homes." The joint committee report, judging by the newspaper's account, was unsparing.

The report's authors argue that "an entire culture change" is needed "to ensure that patients and staff who work with them are aware of their basic human rights."  Well, just how bad are conditions? Awful.\

For example, according to The Guardian's Lucy Ward, the study "warns that many older people are facing maltreatment ranging from physical neglect so severe they are left lying in their own feces or urine to malnutrition and dehydration through lack of help with eating."

"Lack of dignity," she writes, "especially for personal care needs, inappropriate medication designed more to subdue patients than treat them, and over-hasty discharge from hospital are also causing suffering for many older people…"

One advocacy group, "Age Concern," estimates that at any one time in Britain "some half a million older people are subject to some form of abuse." For example, a rush-rush atmosphere--not taking time to ensure that older people can feed themselves --affects 60% of older people in hospitals, Age Concern says, "and [this] can lead to malnutrition or dehydration," according to The Guardian.

The story can be read at http://society.guardian.co.uk/longtermcare/story/0,,2148898,00.html. Let me conclude with one of the specific examples of elder abuse cited by Ward near the end of her story.

"She grew very thin and it was obvious to visitors that, although she had always had an excellent appetite, she found great difficulty in feeding herself. Visitors would have been only too willing to help but were discouraged from staying during meal times. She appeared to be slowly starving to death."

Part Two