Elderly abuse goes to new heights in California

[caption id="attachment_4337" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Senior citizen club"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff  -  Elderly abuse has gone
to new heights, as reflected in an investigation in California where
workers are accused of "greasing" elderly folks to make them "slippery"
for co-workers as a prank.

 This is despicable behavior by people placed in a position of trust," said Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr.

This behavior, called "cruel and shocking" by Brown, left seven elderly people "defenseless" against a
cruel joke.  These seven have been residents of the Valley View Nursing
Facility.    



The perpetrators of the prank were
said to be Jenny Bido, Christian Guerrero, Jared Buckley, Jennifer
Burton, Kathleen Phillips and Monica Smith, who were all fired by the
nursing home.

 

Each worker has been charged by the
state with injury and battery on an elder, conspiracy, and battery
committed while on hospital property.



Brown's investigation prompted the Mendocino County District Attorney to pursue separate criminal charges against the workers.



In April 21-year-old Cesar Ulloa
was reported in the Los Angeles Times as having been found guilty of eight counts of torture and abuse for assaulting
four residents of an upscale retirement home in Calabasas in
California.  Because some of these victims had dementia, they were
unable to call for help.  Witnesses said Ulloa often laughed and taunted
the victims as he abused them.



Because of the fragility and vulnerability of the elderly, all 50 states have laws specific to elder abuse.  The Action on Elder Abuse
is an advocacy organization that has stressed the need to look at this
problem on a worldwide basis.  So the World Health Organisation, has
adopted a definition that is promoted by the International Network for
the Prevention of Elder Abuse, and has been variously adopted by
countries throughout the World, including the Republic of Ireland :

"A
single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action, occurring within
any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes
harm or distress to an older person."

It
has at its heart the 'expectation of trust' that an older person may
rightly establish with another person, but which is subsequently
violated. "



The seriousness of elder abuse was
underlined in the present case against the six nursing home workers who
"greased" the elderly patients as a joke. by District Attorney Meredith
Lintott, "We're committed to keeping that population safe and to
prosecuting those who take advantage of our elders."