Abuse In Japan example essay topic

Before doing research on this topic, I would have said that the United States treats the elderly with passion and love, but I now know that I was wrong. The elderly people have been treated just as badly, if not worse then, in Japan. How could this be? The elderly are so innocent, loving, and have nothing but care for most people.

How could anyone harm such a loving soul? These questions are more than likely going through many minds as I am writing this paper. In the United States most of the abuse has came from nursing homes, but in Japan more than likely the abuse is coming from the offspring of the elderly. Even though both governments' officials are trying to pass new laws to protect the elderly, the abuse continues. There are groups that are forming up to help support the elderly in the United States.

The people of Japan are not doing as much as they should because the abuse happens behind closed doors and the family member will more than likely just deny it. Crimes that are committed against the elderly can be divided into two different categories. "The first crime includes conventional crimes such as robbery, theft, fraud, rape, and homicide. The second type of crime is more about the neglect and abuse" (James). These crimes happen more often with older people than they do with younger people because the elderly a lot of times have some type of disease that will prevent them from doing a lot of things and they are sometimes motionless. Therefore they cannot do anything about the robberies or the abuse.

It would take a person with a very cold heart to be able to inflict so much pain on an innocent person. Why can't the world just show love and happiness to its older generation? The difference between the United States and Japan is that the children of the elderly are abusing them in Japan and in the United States nursing homes are abusing our elderly. "Of nursing home staff in 1989 40% admitted to committing at least one psychologically abusive act toward a resident and 10% admitted to physically abusing a resident in the preceding year" (Fischer). These people working in nursing homes are supposed to be taking care of our loved ones, but instead of taking care of our family members they are hurting them. According to Christie Fischer, a student studying elderly abuse at the University of South Dakota, the United States spent 77.9 billion dollars in 1995 for nursing home care alone.

How could an industry that is being paid so much inflict so much pain on someone? "Abuse in nursing homes can take place in many shapes and forms including, but not limited to, verbal, physical, psychological, and abuse due to the use of restraints" (Fischer). These statements are not saying that every nursing home in the United States does not take care of its patients but it is saying that some of this truly does happen in the nursing homes throughout the United States. In Japan, on the other hand, most of the abuse comes from the children of the elderly. "In one case, a public servant quit his job to care for his mother in her 80's and adapted his home to meet her needs, including the installation of a lift. But without support from other family members, the strain took its toll on the man, who began abusing his mother, giving her water only once a day.

The abuse on the mother only got worse when her son died, leaving the care to her daughter-in-law, who refused to let the woman take a bath, and escalated the abuse when the woman became too weak to walk. Then the daughter-in-law refused to feed the woman because she said it would help the mother pass on to her next life quicker" (Green)". The abuse has gone so far that the sons were responsible for the abuse in 32 percent of the cases, followed by daughters-in-law and spouses, each at 20 percent. About 64 percent of the cases involved mental abuse, including yelling or willful neglect, 52 percent involved denying meals or other forms of care and 50 percent included beating people or tying them to their bed" (Ajima). According to the Xinhua News Agency, 54.1 percent of the alleged abusers did not recognize they were abusing their victim, compared with 24.7 percent who did. The elderly refuse to tell on their children because they are their loved ones and they feel as if they have done something wrong while raising them.

Also, "elderly victims refuse to flee out of fear that their offspring might steal their possessions" (Ajima). For someone who has gave you everything that you have ever had, some of the people in the world want to take and treat them like animals. Many people need to sit back and look deep into these situations and take control of them. Other countries need to put a stop to this as well. "The reason why the people of Japan are not doing a lot to stop this is because problems inside the home have traditionally been regarded as a family matter" (Ajima). "In 90 percent of most cases care managers say that it is difficult to find out and help the elderly because their families always put in the efforts to intervene" (Roundup).

The government officials are not doing much about the abuse in Japan; The only thing that Japan has really started to do is set up private facilities that the elderly can call and get help from and they are also hiring top notch lawyers to support the elderly and stop all of the abuse. In the United States, however, laws are being passed to protect our elderly. It is safe to say though that there are groups that are banding together to stop abuse in the United States. The groups are putting up posters about elderly abuse in places like doctor's offices, churches, assisted living centers, and senior centers.

Putting these posters in these types of areas can be very helpful considering the number of older people that are around them. Not only are they putting up posters but there are numerous amounts of WebSites available to help the elderly as well. The WebSites are probably not used nearly as much as the posters because most of the elderly are not computer literate or they have no way of getting onto the Internet. I had some experience volunteering in a nursing home a couple of years ago, and I do have to say not all of the people are not exactly in the right state of mind, but they are filled with love and excitement whenever they have someone to sit down and actually talk to them.

I heard many amazing stories whenever I went, and I loved hearing them. It would bring excitement to me also because these people really need someone to sit down and just talk to them and you can see how much they appreciate all the time you spend together. Thank God the nursing home I went to treated their elderly with respect and care because I don't know how I would have been able to handle seeing someone getting abused. I only wish I could help out again this year but unfortunately I have football and will not able to work with the elderly. These people are so harmless I don't see how anyone could abuse them at all. After this research it truly amazes me how disrespectful some people are to the older people around the world.

This is a type of situation that happens every year to at least one elderly person and that one person is still too much. Think about the way you would want to feel whenever you get older. Would you want someone abusing you or even stealing from you? More than likely you wouldn't want to be treated this way, so the people of Japan and the United States need to stand up for our elderly because they are the ones that brought us to this lovely place and whenever we all get old we will not want to be treated like we are treating them now.

Bibliography

Ajima, Shiny a. 'Efforts Under Way to Stem Abuse of Elderly. ' INTERVENTION FACES OBSTACLES. 06 January 2005.
25 January 2005 Fischer, Christie.
ELDERLY ABUSE IN NURSING HOMES. ' 26 January 2005.
Green, Shane. "Hidden Abuse of Elderly Emerging Problem for Japan". 26 January 2005.
21 June 2003.
James, Marianne Pinkerton. 'The Elderly as Victims of Crime, Abuse, and Neglect. ' 1 February 2005.
Roundup: Japan seeks efforts to stem abuse of elderly (part one)". Xinhua News Agency. 10 January 2005.
Infotrac Online Database. Volpe Library, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tn. 2 February 2005.
Roundup: Japan Seeks Efforts to Stem Abuse of Elderly (part two)". Xinhua News Agency. 10 January 2005.
2 February 2005.