Social work professor Robin Bonifas spoke Thursday on the abuse of the elderly as part of the ongoing Humanities Lecture Series presented by ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences.
Her presentation outlined the factors involved in elder abuse, which Bonifas referred to as “not really a pleasant topic to be talking about, but one that’s very important.”
It’s hard to define elder abuse, Bonifas said, but her lecture detailed physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and verbal abuse, as well as neglect and exploitation.
The most common form of elder abuse is self-neglect, when an older person fails to provide care for themselves, followed by neglect from a caregiver. In nearly one-third of these cases, the caregivers are the senior’s adult children.
Between 1 and 2 million “older adults” have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated, according to surveys cited in the lecture. These studies demonstrate that between 2 and 10 percent of elders in the United States have been impacted by abuse.
However, the same studies suggest that only about one in 14 cases of elder abuse are reported, leaving most cases of abuse unreported.
Bonifas says that often, elders are afraid to report abuse.
“The majority of abuse occurs in the context of a caregiver relationship, and the idea of ‘What’s going to happen to me if I report my caregiver? Who’s going to take care of me?’ is one of the fears. The other fear is, what’s my caregiver going to do to me?” she said.
Statistics show that in 2003, there were 8,040 reports of elder abuse in Arizona, 3,015 of which were substantiated by evidence of abuse. Most of these cases involved neglect.
Novis Steward, a general studies senior, called the event “a great presentation on things we should be aware of.”
“It makes you evaluate yourself as a caregiver: Am I being appropriate?” she said. “Am I helping address this person’s needs, not just my needs?”
John Sullivan, a social work graduate student, said Bonifas’ speech was useful in identifying possible solutions and ways to become aware of abusive situations.
“It’s not just the figures, but putting them into context so it means something to the caregivers and the people that are involved,” Sullivan said.
Contact the reporter at bkutzler@asu.edu
