New legislation is needed to tackle the hidden problem of abuse of the elderly, nurses warned today.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said abuse of older people both in their homes and care facilities has been recognised as a growing worldwide problem.
"Our older generation deserves to be treated with the highest possible standards of dignity and care together with all of the required resources to ensure that their needs are fully met," INO general secretary Mr Liam Doran said.
The INO, which today launched guidelines to help nurses understand and tackle the issue, said the problem was likely to increase as the population grows.
The guidelines, which were drawn up by a group of nurses who work solely with the elderly, show many types of abuse, including physical, psychological, financial, neglect, discriminatory or sexual. Mr Doran said the guidelines would be presented to the new Minister for Health, Ms Harney, and urged her department to develop legislation covering the issue.
The organisation called for all health agencies looking after the elderly to put the guidelines in place. It also called for the establishment of an Ombudsman for the older person, full implementation of the 2001 Health Strategy and the funding of a public awareness campaign.
The guidelines advise nurses to be aware of signs which vary from burns, disrupted sleep, sudden alterations to wills, malnutrition to human bite marks.
Nurses will also be informed of the reporting procedure to adopt in cases of suspected abuse. Ms Madeline Spiers, INO President, said that in many elderly care units around the country just one nurse was being left to look after 40 patients during a night shift.
While no official statistics exist in Ireland, the INO said the trend internationally suggests that as many as 21,500 elderly people could be subjected to some form of abuse at any one time.
"We, as nurses, cannot give a quality assured service in this area due to the indifference, over many years, of health agencies and the political system," Ms Spiers said.
"Our current staffing levels are completely inadequate; fail to reflect the increasing dependency of our patients and confirm our employers' total lack of understanding of how this impacts on patient care."