Substance Abuse and Abuse Q 48
Which situation would Nurse Sally identify as placing a client at high risk for caregiver abuse?
A. Antonia, an adult child, quits her job to move in and care for a parent with severe dementia.
B. Mr. Wright, an elderly man with severe heart disease, resides in a personal care home and is frequently visited by his adult child.
C. Mrs. Hale, an elderly parent with limited mobility, lives alone and receives help from several adult children.
D. Antoinette cares for her husband who is in early stages of Alzheimer's disease and has a network of available support persons.
Correct Answer: A. Antonia quits her job to move in and care for a parent with severe dementia.
In this situation, the adult child has given up her usual role as well as moved her place of residence to care for her parents. Caring for someone with severe dementia is very stressful, requiring almost 24-hour vigilance to ensure safety and meet needs. This situation places the caregiver at high risk for stress and abuse. A combination of individual, relational, community, and societal factors contribute to the risk of becoming a perpetrator of elder abuse. They are contributing factors and may or may not be direct causes.
Option B: The caregivers in option B are the staff working in the personal care home; the adult child does not have primary responsibility and, therefore, would not be a high risk for severe stress and abuse. Elder abuse is a serious problem that can have harmful effects on victims. The goal for elder abuse prevention is to stop it from happening in the first place. However, the solutions are as complex as the problem.
Option C: The caregivers are receiving support and no one person has primary responsibility. This will decrease the risk for severe caregiver stress. Knowledge about what works to prevent elder abuse is growing. However, most prevention strategies and practices have not yet been rigorously evaluated to determine their effectiveness.
Option D: Elder abuse is an intentional act or failure to act that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult. An older adult is someone age 60 or older. The abuse often occurs at the hands of a caregiver or a person the elder trusts. Abuse, including neglect and exploitation, are experienced by about 1 in 10 people aged 60 and older who live at home. From 2002 to 2016, more than 643,000 older adults were treated in the emergency department for nonfatal assaults and over 19,000 homicides occurred.