As people age, and start to physically weaken, they become increasingly reliant on caretakers and family members. While, in many cases, elders are well taken care of and their aging may bring families closer, on the other hand, elder abuse is becoming increasingly frequent in our society. Today, we delve into the various forms that elder abuse can take. We kick the episode off by looking at the scope of elder abuse and neglect. From there, we dive into each of the forms of abuse and their various manifestations. We begin by looking at physical abuse, which is where force is used to constrain or cause bodily harm. We then move onto the emotional and sexual abuse of the elderly. This can take several forms, which we explore in some depth. After this, move onto elder neglect. Although elders may be suffering, they are oftentimes hesitant to say anything out of fear of who will take care of them if their neglectful or abusive caretaker leaves. Then, we look at financial abuse of the elderly, and ways to potentially safeguard against it occurring. We round the show off by talking about some of the symptoms and signs to look out for if you think that there may be a case of elder abuse. Remember, it’s important to take care of our elders, and to make sure they do not come into any harm. Tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Learn more about the definitions of elder abuse and neglect. 
• Physical abuse: What it is, the different forms it can take, and some of the symptoms.
• Ways that Shari and her siblings take care of their mother and make her life ‘normal.’
• Find out what emotional elderly abuse is and the various manifestations of it.
• Why it’s important for caretakers to have some reprieve during their shifts.
• Women are disproportionately affected by elder abuse for several reasons.
• Learn more about elder sexual abuse and how it affects this age demographic.
• The different forms that neglect can take and why it’s underreported.
• What financial elder abuse is and how to take precautions against it happening.
• How Shari helped the elders in her family get financial protection.
• A range of symptoms to look for when there’s a concern about elder abuse.

Tweetables:

“Elder abuse more frequently affects women.” — Shari Kastein [0:13:06]

“The main thing is we want to get help for the victim, the elderly person, and we want to make sure we’re watching the caretaker and their activities.” — Shari Kastein [0:28:06]

“We can make sure our loved ones are taken care of. We want to make sure that their golden years are really that. That they’re golden and they are living the life that they deserve.” — Shari Kastein [0:29:34]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Shari Kastein — https://www.sharikastein.com/

Shari Kastein on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/shari-kastein-65754339/

Shari Kastein Email — [email protected]

Iowa Victim Service Call Centre — http://www.survivorshelpline.org/

Iowa Victim Service Call Centre Hotline — 1800 770 1650

Iowa Victim Service Call Centre Help Text Number — 20121

FreeWill — https://www.freewill.com/