Elder / Senior Abuse and Neglect – Christians need to stop worshipping youth – there are other needy groups out there
American Christians are ageist. They are youth obsessed. They are always focused on how to attract 14 year olds and college kids to church, or always sending rice to orphans in Africa. Lost in the shuffle are people like this elderly woman. Granted, she is in Australia, but this sort of thing happens in the USA as well.
(Link): Brutal final weeks of neglected woman in Australia shows how world fails seniors in silence
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- For some, aging in today’s world can be a slow slide into invisibility.
- In study after study, elders say they exist in the shadows, at home or in institutions. Their words are dismissed. Even their bodies shrink. Sometimes they become invisible to themselves, as the cruelty of dementia robs them of the memories of who they once were.
- This invisibility is reflected in the laws and practices of society.
- Information on elder abuse lags decades behind research on child abuse. Only a handful of countries legally require the reporting of suspected elder abuse, compared to dozens for child abuse.
(Link): Neglected elderly Australian endures brutal end
Excerpts:
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- Sunday, October 20, 7:58 PM
Brutal final weeks of neglected woman in Australia shows how world fails seniors in silence
By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, October 20, 7:58 PM
SYDNEY — By the time the ambulance showed up to the house, the old woman’s screams were, as the paramedics would later tell it, already at a 10 out of 10.
On a bed in the foyer lay 88-year-old Cynthia Thoresen, her eyes screwed up in agony, her fists clenched, with an untended broken leg. Feces caked her body, from her arms down to her feet, filling the crevices between her toes and under her fingernails.
The fact that Cynthia even lived in the house was a surprise to most of the neighbors. None had ever seen her. None had any idea she’d spent her final days in hellish pain after a fall. None knew that her daughter and caretaker, Marguerite Thoresen, had waited weeks before calling for help, or that the help would come far too late.
In the end, Cynthia Thoresen joined a large and growing cohort of elderly people across the world who live — and increasingly die — in silence. They are unseen and unheard, left to fend for themselves against a problem society has barely begun to notice, let alone fix: elder abuse.
This type of abuse, which in many cases includes neglect, is still so hidden that it is hard to quantify. But the broad picture gleaned from hundreds of interviews and dozens of studies reviewed by The Associated Press is clear: Tens of millions of elders have become victims, trapped between governments and families, neither of which has figured out how to protect or provide for them.
Most of the elderly live with relatives or at home, and researchers estimate at least 4 to 10 percent of them are abused, likely much more. Even by the lowest count of 4 percent, that means about 30 million people.
Related posts….
(Link): Youth Fixation in Churches and how it alienates older Christians
(Link): Christians and Ageism – Under Age 15 Favored / Declining Youth Church Memership
(Link): Getting People Back to Church / Christian Event Targeting ‘Apathetic’ Youth *BARF*
(Link): Pandering to the Youth – Parallel Between Politics and Contemporary Christianity
(Link): Single Adults – Why They Stay and Why They Stray From Church – Book Excerpts
(Link): You Will Be Ignored After Your Spouse Dies (advice columnist)
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