A Happier Ending: Elderly Abuse? "The next social Explosion"

The day after I set up this blog, Britain’s respected Telegraph newspaper carried an interview with a senior policewoman, Barbara Wilding. I was slightly surprised to see it as the “splash” or lead story on Page One. But then I read the headline: “Assisted suicide could be excuse to kill burdensome elderly, says police chief.”

Incendiary stuff indeed, but not undeserving of consideration, particularly when voiced by such an experienced police officer with more than 40 years’ experience on the front line and a long-documented interest in fundamental socio-economic issues.

Personally, I am not (yet) sure how I feel about assisted suicide. The Netherlands’ initial move towards legalising euthanasia was practically my very first “scoop”. At the time, I was a rookie journalist, posted to Amsterdam and charged with reading the normally deathly dull Government chronicle to improve my Dutch.

“Euthanasie” I could just about grasp and, with my trusty dictionary to hand, I worked out that the dry announcement regarding the following day’s parliamentary debate contained a potentially explosive story. I hope to return to this problematic issue again in this forum. Yet I was more interested in other points raised in Ms Wilding’s interview.

“Elderly abuse is something that we have yet to really grasp,” she said. “It is one of the things that I think will be the next social explosion.”

She drew comparisons with the first discovery of widespread child abuse in Britain in the 1970s and said that abuse of the elderly was “the same sort of social issue; it can be covered up and the victims do not have a voice.”

Ms Wilding suggested that inter-generational tensions will be exacerbated by the ageing population. Figures released this week from the Office for National Statistics revealed that there are a record 1.3 million people over 85 in Britain, making up two per cent of the total.

Asked to define what she described as a potential explosion of elderly abuse, she said: “It can range from the violent through to the psychological - not providing the medical care at the right time, looking after people to their needs and recognising that they are valuable members of society".

To read the rest of the interview please click here:

WHY ALL OF US SHOULD WANT "A HAPPIER ENDING"

In December 2008, my father, Fred Jackson ISO, QFSM, CPM, finally passed away at the age of 85. Sadly his final months were blighted by a still rare and not fully understood form of Alzheimers, called Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

Even more sadly, this condition enabled several people whom he should, by rights, have been able to trust, to take advantage of his loyalty, generosity, frailty and confusion. My brave Dad, D-Day veteran, distinguished fire fighter, became yet another victim, not just of the rising tide of senile dementia, but of the burgeoning phenomenon of elderly and vulnerable adult abuse.

Child abuse is a heinous crime and deserves every headline, no matter how lurid, it receives. And yet; there is no financial incentive to abuse a child. A frail, not always 100 per cent lucid, elderly or disabled person is just as defenceless as a small child. The fact that the older victim may be in receipt of an attractive pension or live in a mortgage-free home makes them even more vulnerable - particularly in the current economic climate.

My hope for this blog is relatively modest: simply to raise awareness of the growing problem of vulnerable adult abuse and who knows, maybe even start to tackle the problem in a more concrete way? We shall see. Sincere thanks for reading.

What is Dementia with Lewy Bodies? (DLB)

DLB is a form of dementia which shares symptons with both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Diseases. It is named after Alois Alzheimer’s colleague, Frederick Lewy (1885-1950) who, in 1912, identified the eponymous ‘bodies’ or abnormal protein deposits in the brain which disrupt normal function. DLB was virtually unknown until around a decade ago, when scientists in the United Kingdom, Japan and the U.S. collaborated on the pioneering research which finally established DLB as a distinct condition.

A major problem with diagnosis is that every sufferer is different and will manifest different degrees of the characteristic symptoms. Some will show no signs of certain features, especially in the early stages. Symptoms may fluctuate as often as moment-to-moment, hour-to-hour or day-to-day.

The main characteristics include general mental decline and a lowered attention span. My father’s diagnosis was ultimately confirmed by his recurrent and vivid hallucinations. He would be convinced that he was back in the Navy or in Hong Kong; he frequently saw my late brother, sitting, smiling, on end of his bed. He was also, for the first time in eight decades, severely depressed. DLB also brings with it distressing fluctuations in autonomic processes, including blood pressure, bowel function and urination and body temperature.

In the UK alone there are more than 700,000 people living with dementia, of whom around 100,000 are thought to have DLB. This total is projected to rise to 1.8 million by 2050. In the EU, five million people suffer individually – while the number of people affected increases exponentially when you include family and caregivers.

The Lewy Body Dementia Association is a U.S. based not-for-profit support and research group. In the U.K, the Lewy Body Society does a similar job. Their motto is: "The more people who know, the fewer people who suffer...."

About Me

Dominique Jackson is a freelance writer & translator with more than 20 years' experience of the Fourth Estate. She studied Modern & Medieval Languages at Magdalen College, Oxford and trained at Reuters News Agency after graduating. She worked initially as a foreign correspondent, reporting from Latin America, South East Asia, including her native Hong Kong and the Benelux countries, Spain and Portugal, and latterly, as a writer and editor on London's Fleet Street.

Dominique's work has appeared in publications as diverse as the Guardian, the Spectator, the Financial Times, Marie Claire and Avenue magazines, the Times Educational Supplement, the Volkskrant & the South China Morning Post

Many thanks for reading!

A Happier Ending

Elderly Abuse? "The next social Explosion"

No comments:

Post a Comment

Uncle Fred: 1923-2008

WHY ALL OF US SHOULD WANT "A HAPPIER ENDING"

What is Dementia with Lewy Bodies? (DLB)

About Me

Blog Archive