Putting an End to Elderly Abuse  

This week, twenty-two-year-old Diego Santos was charged with manslaughter after allegedly causing the death of sixty-one-year-old Danatilo Cruz. Reports indicate that Santos and Cruz had an altercation, during which Santos pushed Cruz to the ground, resulting in a fatal head injury. Cruz was discovered in a comatose state the following morning and later succumbed to his injuries. This incident follows the arraignment of twenty-one-year-old Allen Coye, who was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of fifty-eight-year-old Belhelm Guzman, whose body was found bound and decomposed in Camalote Village. In another tragic event, on September twelfth, sixty-one-year-old Ubaldo Guzman was found brutally chopped to death in his home in Santa Elena after an altercation with his companion, Peter August, who was subsequently charged with manslaughter. This alarming trend of elderly citizens dying during altercations with younger individuals raises serious concerns about the safety of this vulnerable community. We spoke with Dorelyn Sabal, Program Officer at the National Council on Aging, to learn more about how to protect the elderly from situations that could lead to their abuse or untimely death.

 

Doralyn Sabal, Program Officer, National Council on Aging

“Usually elder abuse is done by somebody close to that older person, whether it’s their child, grandchild, or perhaps the caregiver. And so we typically try to encourage whether it’s family caregivers or paid caregivers  to assess their situation acknowledge when you’re feeling burnt out and we encourage families to also be in tune so that when that person is feeling a bit of burnout they can encourage them to take a deep breath, relax a bit and so that they can get back fresh and revitalized to go back and help that older person. Because it can be challenging. Sometimes older persons sometimes have underlying conditions. They might suffer from dementia. So things of this sort. We have to ensure that they’re taking care of themselves in order to take care of somebody else.”

 

Britney Gordon

“And what’s the mandate on ensuring that these elderly people aren’t left alone in situations where maybe their Children don’t live with them? How do we navigate ensuring that they are adequately cared for in those situations?”

Doralyn Sabal

“There’s currently no mandate in place to say that you have to be there for that older persons. But what I can see is that the consulate currently hasn’t dropped our welfare and protection bill for older persons. And these are things that we are trying to tackle because we can see that there are some gaps in terms of services for older persons protection for older persons, and measures that can be put in place to ensure that they are well predicted. So there’s nothing. In place, but we’re working on trying to ensure that our older persons are aging with dignity and integrity.”