World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

This past Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Created in 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA), the day is meant to form partnerships between people, corporations and agencies seeking to end Elder Abuse. Yesterday, June 17 ^th, the INPEA and its supporters met in London, England, for a conference on elder abuse awareness.  At the convention they discussed, among other things, ways to identify abuse, stop elder abuse, and prevent it from happening.

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are, unfortunately, sometimes hotbeds of elder abuse. The Berkeley Daily Planet 's Senior Power column observed World Elder Abuse Awareness Day with a series of true and false statements about nursing homes.

Some of the truths about nursing homes include:
    Most people who live and work in nursing homes are women.
    Many nursing home patients suffer from dementia.
    There is no uniform data on the prevalence of nursing home abuse.
    Nursing home abuse often goes unreported.
    Infections are the cause of nearly 400,000 nursing home deaths a year.

Some of the misnomers about nursing homes include:
    Nursing home costs are entirely covered by Medicare.
    Most of the care in nursing homes is provided by highly trained nurses.
    Most nursing homes are nonprofit organizations.
    No one except their families is looking out for the interests of nursing home patients.
    Most nursing home patients are single or never married.

Overall, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is meant to do just as its name implies - raise awareness of the growing problems facing a group of people frequently not in a position to defend themselves. Educating the general public about the seriousness of elder abuse will hopefully make ending it a priority.