Elder mistreatment is an umbrella term that includes elder abuse and elder neglect. Elder mistreatment is defined as “intentional actions that cause harm or creates serious risk of harm (whether or not harm is intended) to a vulnerable elder by a caregiver” (Humphreys & Campbell, 2011, p. 348). Elder neglect tends to be chronic, rather than elder abuse which may be episodic (Humphreys & Campbell, 2011, p. 262). In a sense, elder neglect is made up of actions that are more consistent and detrimental to the elder’s health. More specifically, neglect of an elder is “failure to provide an aged and dependent individual with necessities of life: food, shelter, clothing and medical care” (Humphreys & Campbell, 2011, …show more content…
There were times when my preceptor and I would walk into a patient’s house and the smell of urine and feces surrounded us. This called for a careful assessment of the family dynamics, caregiver responsibilities and patient. We were not only concerned, but also sometimes suspicious of the living conditions of the patient. As healthcare providers, we cannot always jump into conclusions without assessing a situation in its entirety. There had been one case where one of our patients had been sitting in a soiled diaper for too long. Before further assessing, we reminded ourselves of the history of our hemiparesis patient and her family. We recalled that the house belonged to the patient’s caregiver, her daughter. Although the patient’s son-in-law and grandson also lived in the house, they do not contribute to the care provided. We had later learned that the daughter had been struggling with a few personal problems that in turn, affected the care provided to her elder mother. After learning that the patient can be difficult and sometimes verbally abusive to her family, we felt the need to gather more information from both the patient and her daughter. The patient shared that she sits in a wet diaper for a couple of hours, but it does not happen too often. This was enough for us to further investigate the situation at home, considering we had found her in a soiled