The Most Common Types of Elder Abuse

What are the 7 most common types of elder abuse? physical, sexual, emotional or psychological, neglect, abandonment, financial or material exportations, and self-neglect.

Prevalence of elder abuse: total number of cases of a phenomenon in a particular population at a specific time. Estimated between 1 and 10% of elder population age 65 and older.

• Examples: Shaking, burning, slapping, pushing, hitting, shoving, beating, unwanted touching, rape, sexual assault or battery, coerced nudity.
• Examples: Intimidation, threats, humiliation, harassment, verbal assaults, insults.

Care of pets is considered an Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL). ADLs include self-care, including learning how to take care of one’s body, toilet hygiene, bowel and bladder management, bathing and showering, personal hygiene and grooming, eating and feeding, dressing, and functional mobility.)

Although not necessary for functional living, the ability to perform IADLs can significantly improve the quality of life. The major domains of IADLs include cooking, cleaning, transportation, laundry, and managing finances.

IADLs (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) are slightly more complex skills. They include managing finances, handling transportation, shopping, preparing meals, using the telephone or other communication devices, managing medications, doing laundry, housework, and basic home maintenance.

Our Services for the Seven Activities of Daily Living

• Bathing and Grooming.
• Dressing and Undressing.
• Meal Preparation and Feeding.
• Functional Transfers.
• Safe Restroom Use and Maintaining Continence.
• Ambulation.
• Memory Care and Stimulation (Alzheimer’s and Dementia)

The most common limitations in ADL in the study group were bathing and showering (8.38%) and dressing (6.52%). In IADL, moving within the community posed the most problems (27.46%).

If a sample person has difficulty performing an activity by himself/herself and without special equipment, or does not perform the activity at all because of health problems, the person is deemed to have a limitation in that activity. The limitation may be temporary or chronic at the time of the survey.

An Encompass Health therapist helps a patient load a dishwasher to practice iADLs, or instrumental Activities of Daily Living. The term “ADLs” in healthcare stands for Activities of Daily Living; iADLs are instrumental Activities of Daily Living.

Functional limitations are restrictions that prevent one from fully performing activities of daily living (ADL) from physical or mental causes and can lead to disability. This tends to affect one’s occupation, leisurely activities, hobbies, sports, and physical exercise.

An individual’s gait and other locomotor activities as assessed in a gait laboratory are examples of functional limitations measures. As such, functional limitations reflect an attribute of the capacity of an individual.

Pain was strongly associated with all measures of functional limitation regardless of whether subjects had arthritis, although the relationship between pain and functional limitation was stronger for subjects without arthritis, particularly for ADL difficulty (Table 3).

Important Note about Functional Limitation Reporting: As of January 1, 2019, Medicare is no longer requiring functional limitation reporting. However, functional limitation reporting may still be necessary for some non-Medicare payers.

Generally, the limitations are placed near the end of the discussion. Most authors include the limitations as a separate paragraph, usually starting with a lead sentence such as “However, our study had several limitations”. Alternatively, you can work the limitations into relevant sections of the general discussion.

For functional independence, moderate (and high) levels of physical activity appeared effective in conferring a reduced risk (odds ratio ~0.5) of functional limitations or disability.

Your long term disability policy may limit your period of eligibility if your disability results from a psychiatric condition. This is commonly referred to as a Mental Illness Limitation. Notably, the limitation may affect you even if you are not disabled due to a psychiatric condition.

Physical function is the ability to perform both basic and instrumental activities of daily living, and the ability of older adults to reside in the community depends to a large extent on their level of physical function.

Examples of physical disability include cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Carpal tunnel syndrome, amputations and spinal cord injuries.

Paintings and buildings can both be symbols, but buildings also serve a physical function. Many objects have both physical and aesthetic duties. Architects, Industial and Graphic Designers, Interior Decorators-all of these professionals have to balance form and function.

PERSONAL FUNCTION – communicates life experiences, emotions or feelings of an individual – EXAMPLE: Expressive Art, Art Therapy. The personal functions of art are often the most difficult to explain. There are many types of personal function, and they are subjective and will therefore vary from person to person.

Arts always have a function but they cannot be assigned since the function of an art form depends on its context. However, the easiest way to identify its function is to know who the artist was and what genre does it belong. Functions of art can be categorized into: personal, physical, or social.

The functions of art normally fall into three categories: physical, social, and personal.

Halliday’s term for a linguistic function in which one uses language to express one’s emotions, personality, and ‘gut reactions’. For example, ‘I hate that! ‘