Speial Populations Paper

Barbra Alliano

5/28/08

Special Populations Paper

BSHS 402

Walking into a nursing room one day I heard a nurse say to a patient,” You made this mess, you clean it up.” This is disturbing to me because as a social worker I must report this type of abuse. Within this paper I will include reason why my life is dedicated to helping the elderly avoid abuse. Online I discovered the many possibilities of what is out there and what I can learn about. I have always been interested in the elderly and being someone to help them. So after spending hours online looking through different populations, I decided I wanted to write on elderly abuse. Because of the deep personal relationships I have with the elderly this is why I wanted to write about it. My grandmother was abused by her certified home health aide, and when we found out it was going on we were angry. This population is taken for granted everyday. We need to be concerned about them and their lives.

In today’s society there are many populations that can be studied. In my search it varied from abused women all the way to minorities who have criminal records. I searched many different data bases learning about different populations and decided to take a deeper look into the elderly. I found that a lot of elderly are abused by family members and friends. Sometimes it’s not avoidable when it comes to family. The family members take advantage of the elderly and make sure that they lie about bruises or anything on them. Friends can also be abusive. When it comes to the elderly in nursing homes make sure if you see anything strange you report it. Elderly abuse is a crime and should not be taken lightly. People should not even joke about that. Elderly abuse has always upset me. The area of interest was formed when I wanted to remember my grandmother’s memory and help defend elderly abuse. I also have interest in this field because I worked with the elderly before and it was a great experience. To stop the abuse to elderly would honor my grandmother and to me.

In this field this population can benefit a lot from me. I have a caring heart, and I listen. I am very helpful to making sure their needs are taken care of and I also have great organizational skills. A caring heart is needed in any position of this field. It is needed to make sure that my heart is in my job and not just on money. The elderly need someone who has a caring heart that can help them make rational decisions. I can bring good listening skills because when the elderly are being abused they need someone to see the signs. You can not just listen with your ears but your eyes. Body language is the most important sometimes because they do not want to say anything because they fear the violator. When people need their finances or other things taken care of there has to be some kind of organization. My organizational skills will help them do what is needed to be done to make sure that things work out for them. I would use case management to find services to help them. I would also be able to find different