As your loved ones get older, taking care of them becomes challenging. People tend to go to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, or adult daycare centers to care for their elder relatives.
However, there is a great risk of elder abuse in those places. In order to combat such issues, it is essential to be aware of the common types of abuse so that you can recognize them and protect your loved ones from them. If you or someone you know are experiencing elder abuse, consult a Laguna Hills Elder Abuse Lawyer to get legal help.
What are the common types of elder abuse?
- Physical Elder Abuse
Physical elder abuse takes place when someone causes harm to your elders by a physical impact like hitting, pushing, burning, etc. These types of hurtful actions lead to them getting hurt to a significant extent. It can result
in severe injuries. With age, bones grow weaker. Your elders are more prone to catastrophic injuries when subjected to such abuse. Common forms of physical elder abuse are bruising, kicking, scratching, slapping, and restraining.
- Emotional Elder Abuse
Emotional abuse is more hurtful as compared to physical abuse. Emotionally abused individuals experience recurring feelings of fear, anxiety, depression, mood swings, and other mental issues. An emotional abuser is generally in a powerful position and misuses the authority to torment the victim. The victims are often in a helpless situation where they do not have many options to save themselves from the abuse.
Psychological torture, threatening elders, verbally harassing them, and isolating them to prevent them from interacting with others are some commonly used tactics of emotional elder abuse. Ongoing cycles of abuse can cause trauma and affect their emotional health significantly.
- Financial Elder Abuse
Older adults often trust insincere individuals regarding their finances and get exploited by them. Their trust and money get misused, and they end up getting scammed, leading to losses.
Financially abused elders may get their money withheld or stolen from them. Their signature might be forged, or they may be pressured into signing cheques for money.
- Sexual abuse
As sickening as it sounds, older individuals often tend to get taken advantage of by their vulnerability. They may be forced or coerced into sexual favors. Sexual exploitation or forceful intimacy is a common type of abuse experienced by them.
- Malnourishment
Often, they are maliciously malnourished by inadequate food and water supply. Abusers purposely do this to cause harm.
