Week 6 Chapter 12 Reflection
This chapter covers special problems that the elderly face as they reach the later stages of life. These problems include suicide, elder abuse, fraud, and drug abuse. Being left alone, uncared for, and unable to care for themselves, brings a feeling of hopelessness about "a future with no promise and no reason to live in it" (Hillier & Barrow, 2011). In these situations many of the elderly (particularly white men) may commit suicide. Some of the elderly fall victim to elder abuse by family members and care providers, while others become prey for con artists and robbers, because they are perceived as vulnerable by these criminals.
Not all of the crimes committed against the elderly are done by younger offenders. There are many elderly citizens committing crimes as well. Although most of the "crimes committed by elders are misdemeanors- petty theft, traffic violations, shoplifting," they are still crimes. Many more of the elderly become victims of drug abuse, voluntarily or involuntarily. Aging can bring a multitude of health problems which require the use of drugs to treat. Hillier and Barrow state that "with multiple drug usage, a more significant chance exists for adverse drug reaction and drug abuse" (2011).
The elderly can sometime have so many prescriptions to take, they may forget what they have taken and what they have not, which can cause over medication and addiction. This can also happen with health professionals who administer medication to the elderly patients. They may mistakenly give a patient the wrong medication, or over medicate them to keep them sedated so they are not bothered by them.
Whatever the case may be, it is time to start taking better care of the current elderly now, so there will be improved care for the future elderly.
This learner believes that elders can forget what and when they took their medicine. This is easily taken as drug abuse. This learner also feels that elders can look around and see technology and the economy passing them by and become overwhelmed. There are so many things now that have changed. In the text, Hillier and Barrow explain that 75 percent of elders commit suicide after visiting the doctor (Hillier & Barrow, 2011). The reason is that elders are living longer but not better quality of living (Hillier & Barrow, 2011). This chapter was hard for this learner to accept because of the hopelessness in the elder’s life. Being that it is the end of a person’s life, it should be better than what statistics are showing.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to see how an elderly person can over-medicate themselves simply by not remembering if they had already taken their medication and taking it again. This learner has done that before in the past and is nowhere close to being a senior citizen. It is foreseeable of this being a problem and the potential risk of becoming addicted to prescription medications. It is also so sad to think of how often elderly abuse is caused by family members or caregivers. These are people in a senior citizens life which should be trusted and instead many fall victim to being mistreated or swindled out of money. It is also surprising to learn how common it is for seniors to be the ones committing crimes. Although these crimes are mostly misdemeanor offenses, they still risk the chance of having to serve time in jail. I also agree with your statement of the need to start taking better care of the currently elderly population so the trend is set in place so that by the time we reach this age, we may not have the same problems or issues to deal with.
ReplyDeleteValerie, I like the quote that you put from the book that “a future with no promise and no reason to live in it” (Hillier and Barrow, 2011). This quote relates to this chapter because elder individuals are often victims of suicide, elder abuse, fraud, and drug abuse like you mentioned. Many older adults feel the need to commit suicide because they have a lot of stress that is caused by hospital bills from health problems. Other reasons may be from family members, being neglected, and feeling of hopelessness. The elderly are also victims of crimes. These crimes often times include fraud where the con artist commits fraud through theft, burglary, property, and auto. Since older adults are more aware of the crimes being committed, they are more likely to report the criminal to the authorities so that they will not try and commit those crimes again. I did not think about the elderly forgetting what prescriptions they have taken, it is very important for them to have a system so nothing bad happens to them.
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