Legal and ethical matters in the long-term care environment of the elderly infuse the human present society. Such matters have a greater importance to the elderly because they normally involve an old person whose vulnerability is greater than an average adult. In most instances, the average adults neglect and abuse the elderly because of their advanced ages. However, there are also legal and ethical issues to be put into consideration when addressing the long-term and residential care for the elderly.
The complexity of the mistreatment of the elderly can be highlighted by referring to geriatric syndrome concepts like the decline in functionality, urinary incontinence, as well as falls. The syndromes share lots of traits whereby, the factors of the environment play a critical role, and thus, interventions have to be directed and multifaceted at both the contributing elements in the environment and precise pathophysiological predicaments (Scott, 2012). Elder abuse that may include neglect, physical assault, financial trickery, and confinement amongst other abuses are normally perpetrated by the adult children at home. However, there are legal and ethical issues that always arise when putting measures into place for the long-term residential care of the elderly.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Several ethical and legal issues come about in the long-term process of decision making when protecting the elderly. The elderly person is under obligation to respect and recognize the limits that members of his family may justifiably put in place regarding their care giving tasks. Such an obligation relies on the universal obligation that anyone must not harm other people without their accord (Sethi & World Health Organization, 2012). The obligation means no one possess unlimited claim on attention, time, resources, or energy of other persons. Deciding to change the living place for the elderly also involves ethical and legal issues. The elderly loses autonomy due to the decision to relocate him to a nursing home, and thus, the privacy, dignity, and favorite possessions are not guaranteed. Respecting the autonomy of the elderly, as well as maintaining their dignity requires considering the relevant interstitial decisions that are caught up in the nodal decisions. Therefore, when an agreement is made that an elderly person will relocate from his home to his elder adult child then several interstitial decisions must be considered such as respect of the members’ privacy.
To conclude with, it is imperative for the care givers of the elder persons to ensure that the elderly are not subjected to any form of abuse when providing them with the long-term and residential care. It is also significant to ensure that the legal and ethical issues are well addressed.
References
Scott, K. (2012). Long-term caring: Residential, home and community aged care . Chatswood, N.S.W: Elsevier Australia.
Sethi, D., & World Health Organization. (2012). European report on preventing elder maltreatment . Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe.
