Elder abuse - A damning indictment of our society

DURING an address yesterday to the annual meeting of Age Action Ireland Brendan Drumm, chief executive of the Health Services Executive (HSE), announced plans to appoint 30 elder abuse officers to tackle the abuse of elderly people.

A working group, chaired by Desmond O Neill, looking into the abuse of old people initially recommended the appointments.

Professor Drum promised that recruiting of officers would begin immediately. His commitment to tackle this problem — given as part of the first Annual World Elder Abuse Day — should be warmly welcomed. But we should realise that the extent of the actual problem is not known.

The HSE already has more than 7,800 staff formally trained in elder abuse awareness in residential facilities, private nursing homes, hospitals and community services. But the exact number of old people who suffer from emotional and physical abuse has yet to be determined.

It has only in recent years that we learned the extent of the abuse of children in residential institutions of the past. In the light of those disclosures, the indictment of our society will be all the greater, if the kinds of abuse of the elderly, which have been detected in the past couple of years, are not rooted out and stopped without further delay.