Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) is investigating the 1,760 cases of elder abuse, with 477 of these reported in 2011. As there is no dedicated elder abuse officer in the southern region of Ireland the authority believe this figure is likely to be higher.
In the Executive’s annual elder abuse report, to be published next week, they will reveal that there were 2,046 referrals in 2010, which was up from 1,870 in 2009. It will show that neglect and financial abuse claims have risen by 14 percent and nine percent respectively.
This week in Ireland a high profile case, with relation to the takeover of the Rostreavor nursing home, in South Dublin, has grabbed media attention. The home’s owners have failed to overturn the court’s decision that the HSE should take control.
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Justice Matthew Deery, Circuit Court President said that as of now it is being run by the HSE. The Executive has powers to make decisions concerning the welfare of its residents.
Minister of State for Older people, Kathleen Lynch said the situation highlighted the need for whistleblower legislation. She said the legislation is currently “in the drafting office." It will cover care units as well as homes.
The HSE’s expert group, the National Elder Abuse Steering Committee, said the issue of elder abuse is an area of “growing concern” in Ireland. They also believe the number of cases which are being reported is relatively small in comparison to the number that may actually be occurring, as elder abuse remains a social taboo.
Last year, a comprehensive report, carried out by the National Centre for the Protection of Older People (NCPOP) found that 10,000 elderly people in Ireland were being neglected in their own homes. Professor Pearl Treacy, program director of the NCPOP, told the Irish Examiner that researchers are completing a similar report in the nursing home sector.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.sham1977 | Jun 13, 2011, 04:54 PM EDT
Sad to see that it is happening in Ireland too - it's a major problem in the states. Unfortunately, when you pay people a minimum wage, overwork them (meaning that there is not enough staff to care for the amount of people there)and generally foster a crap work environmment, you are going to have a less than pleasant outcome! The same is somewhat true for childcare. There is too low of an emphasis on the importance of care (and therefore higher pay) for these the most vulnerable members of society. They should be cherished and instead they are the most victimized.
mamaginnty | Jun 12, 2011, 08:26 PM EDT
Eejit, calling someone else a racist, use that big mouth of yours to clean up where you live, maybe clean that mouth while your at it...
Pittsburghkid | Jun 12, 2011, 12:45 PM EDT
This is a product of faminism. I grew up in the sanity of the 50's. Mothers took care of the Children, husbands, elderly. Now we have Daycare, Adult Day Care, Assisted Living, Nursing Homes, and divorce to do the job of the mother. The family unit is dying, instead everyone is a number to the state. When my mother was in a Nursing Home, I visited everyday. The attendents knew me by name. I never had a problem, because my mother to them was not a number. The staff loved at her as the mother of a Construction Worker instead of a number.
GeorgeDillon | Jun 12, 2011, 01:47 AM EDT
"in a group home in England". Hey sirpeter, hasn't anyone told you that England is not Ireland? We realize you and your Fianna Fail vermin friends have no sense of Irish nationality, but how's about a little geography at least? What a racist numbskull you are. Why don't you post with your English friends on the racist English National Front site?
sirpeter | Jun 11, 2011, 05:13 PM EDT
I recently watched a doc on carers who were suppose to be minding retarded teenager's in a group home in England and it was horrifying.They were torturing the retarded teenager's.They were not immigrants either Georgie Langball.
mamaginnty | Jun 11, 2011, 04:32 PM EDT
Tis a terrible thing, and most are of the same nationality as the old people they are suposed to be caring for, but horrible stories have emerged from America as well as U.K Shame on them all.
GeorgeDillon | Jun 11, 2011, 03:33 PM EDT
I agree that this is more shame for Ireland. Edlerly Irish men and women, who have contributed so much to their country, are now in the main "cared for" (what a sick joke) by filipinos, Africans and Indians. How sad in the closing years of your life to be uprooted from your home and consigned to a residence where the people who have daily control over you are minimum wage immigrants from the Third World. Many of these people are good people, and do their best given their limited education, but there is a huge cultural and linguistic gap between them and those they attend. And unfortunately many of these migrant "carers" (sic) are not good people. The guy accused of beating up old people in the latest Irish scandal is an Indian ethnic from the island of Mauritius. What the hell are the worthless Irish doing, importing cheap labor from all over the world to tend for their own Irish aged and sick? Shame on them indeed.
LoyalCitizen | Jun 11, 2011, 10:07 AM EDT
More shame for Ireland. We clearly need a court system that works.