Today we had another round of presentations and updates, from current events to oral history projects. There was a great presentation on self-negligence as a form of elder abuse, which is when individuals are "unable, due to physical or mental impairment or diminished capacity, to perform essential self-care”. There is clinical difficulty in detecting and addressing this form of abuse, especially among older adults who live in relative isolation with no support system. Self-negligence is also more common in those with cognitive impairments, as well as those who are in lower socioeconomic ranks. While the more official, aforementioned definition of self-negligence seems to point to the loss of physical/mental capacity and ability to take care of oneself, I wonder how many cases of self-negligence are propagated or worsened by anti-ageist mindsets and structures in our culture and society. As seen earlier in our studies, using infantilizing attitudes and languages towards older individuals have immediate and lasting effects on their own perceived abilities - many times artificially reducing said abilities and worsening their sense of independence, self-reliance, and general quality of life. Psychologically, our locus of control (how much control we believe we have over the events in our life course) is strongly correlated to our health outcomes. Thus, is our overwhelmingly youth-centric attitudes, enablism, and actions artificially reducing our own perceived abilities as we grow older? There is no question that older adults themselves self-reinforce negative ageist stereotypes against themselves, so at what point do these sentiments and attitudes translate to the acceptance of perceived inability and in the end, lack of motivation and/or effort to produce self-negligence? Of course, statistics do tell us that a large majority of older adults in all age ranges across a myriad of different backgrounds enjoy much happier years now then earlier, as well as strong markers of health. However, for individuals who may be in disadvantageous socioeconomic positions or who may suffer from other obstacles in their livelihood and lack the necessary support systems to address these strictures, self-negligence continues to be an alarming, heartbreaking, and many times inconspicuous form of elder abuse affecting some of the most vulnerable in our communities.
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Andrew NguyenWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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