SA facing ‘uphill battle’ in fight against elder abuse
<According to Methodist Homes for the Aged's Nursing Services Manager Estelle du Toit it is clear from statistics that South Africa is facing a very tough uphill battle with regard to abuse of the elderly.
June 15 was World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, designated as such by the United Nations to draw attention to the various challenges and abuses faced by senior citizens around the world.
Du Toit said the abusers are most often family members or a person in charge of care and many elderly are usually too afraid or are unable to speak up for themselves.
“Subsequently, statistics are under-reported, so we are not seeing the full extent of how dire the situation truly is.
“While World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is important to draw attention to this crime against humanity, constant awareness, vigilance and reporting of misconduct must take place day and night if we are ever to achieve any success in slowing down and even eradicating this scourge.”
Du Toit highlighted another unsettling statistic – the prevalence of abuse in institutional settings.
“This is considered to be higher, with up to 64.2 per cent of staff admitting to elder abuse based on self-report,” she said.
According to the Older Persons Act, the most common types of elderly abuse are physical, sexual, psychological (emotional) and economic.
Emotional abuse and neglect or abandonment are the most prevalent forms of abuse, followed by physical and sexual mistreatment.
“Of the 57.3 million people in South Africa, 8.3 per cent are aged over 60,” du Toit said.
“Statistics show that elder abuse and neglect is widespread in South Africa and what is even more alarming is that it is on the increase.
“This unfortunate situation is being fuelled by the fact that South Africa has the highest proportion of elderly people in its population (8.7 per cent) and one of the most rapidly growing aging populations within the African region.
Methodist Homes for the Aged is a Section 21 NPO that has, since 1970, been providing professional accommodation and care to more than 2 000 elderly at its 12 retirement villages in Gauteng and three in the North West Province.
“It is our responsibility to protect the rights of all the elderly in our care, whether they are living independently or in one of our care centres,” affirmed du Toit.
“All our nurses are qualified as we select our staff extremely carefully and everyone is required to attend regular training programmes.”
