DOHA IN an effort to protect the rights of the elderly people, participants in a recent forum organised by the Qatar Foundation for Elderly People Care (Ihsan) have recommended punishing abuse of elderly people as a criminal act.
The participants stressed that elderly individuals have the right to ask for aid and help from authorities concerned when exposed to any form of maltreatment.
Participating in the event titled ‘Violence against the elderly, reality and aspirations’, Dr Fahad al Wahabi, consultant of geriatric psychiatry at King Fahd Medical City, said: “According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) elder abuse can be defined as 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.” He added, “Besides the obvious cases of physical abuse, elder abuse can take various forms such as physical, psychological or emotional, sexual and financial.
Less common ways of abusing the elderly include intentional or unintentional neglect, general carelessness and institutional abuse. These less common types of abuse are seriously alarming and more difficult to identify, prove and cure.” Wahabi also pointed out that international research and studies revealed that neglect, self-induced or otherwise represent around 57 percent of elder abuse worldwide.
“Take for example the family of one of our elderly patients who called me about a week ago to tell me about their father’s suffering from a heavy tongue. Recognising his heavy tongue as a potential stroke, I urged the family to take him to the hospital immediately. The son sent me a message complaining about the long queues in the hospital,” Wahabi said.
He described the incident as “an obvious case of elderly neglect”.
“Against widespread belief, it’s not usually strangers who tend to harm the elderly. By definition, most cases of abuse come with betrayal of an expectation of trust, which is why around 55 percent of elder abuse cases are committed by sons, daughters and spouses,” Wahabi said.
To tackle the problem, the forum reserved a session for the attendants to make recommendations on how to identify cases of elder abuse as well as reprimanding those found guilty of such acts.
The forum called for developing an integrated draft law to protect elderly people’s rights and determine rules and regulations that support them and defend their dignity, in addition to providing economic, psychological, physical and mental security in line with law No 2 of the year 2004 on the protection of the rights of people with special needs.
The recommendations included imposition of penal sanctions on each person in charge of taking care of elderly people who refuses to do his/her duties and obligations towards those vulnerable people, pointing out that anyone neglecting an elderly and leaving him/her exposed to danger because of his mental or physical conditions will be a subject of sanctions and serious punishment.
Besides, the forum urged competent authorities to create ‘public right’ concerning reports received by the security bodies regarding violence against elderly people, noting that if the abused elderly person forgive the violator, the state will still have the right to punish the abuser as stated by law. It is worth mentioning that fines and bail are not accepted in this case. Therefore, violators will be punished to be a deterrent for others.
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