This assignment covers P5- Explain how older people may be vulnerable to exploitation.
M4- Explore stereotypes and attitudes that may be held about older people.
D1- Analyse how the media contributes to reinforcing and also breaking the stereotypes of older people
Unit 18, Task 3 Resub
P5- Explain how older people may be vulnerable to exploitation
Older people are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Quite often they are victims of
inadequate care and neglect. “Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a person’s basic needs.”
(Ferreiro Peteiro et al., 2016) This was discovered to be taking place in Ash Court Care Home, where
the residents were also physically abused by care workers. One resident had been there for six weeks
when her daughter noticed that her mum’s knee was swollen and this was out of the ordinary. She
would-be force-fed food as the carers wouldn’t give her time to finish each mouthful. Older people can
be victims of abuse, and this abuse can be carried out by carers, practitioners or family members, this is
because older individuals can be easier to take advantage of.
Older people are more vulnerable to physical abuse as they may have difficulty moving, this makes them
an easier target to abusers, as they are less likely to fight back because they have less strength than
what a younger person would have so they are more likely to be physically abused than any other
person within society. Often older people are seen as vulnerable and can be easily taken advantage of
because of this, abusers often see that they have an advantage on the victim due to them being
incapable of being able to physically protect themselves. “Physical abuse is a form of abuse which
includes hitting, slapping, pushing, misuse of medication, restraint or inappropriate physical sanctions.”
(Ferreiro Peteiro et al., 2016) Physical abuse can also take form of rough handling an individual or
force feeding them at a rate that is too fast for them to eat.
Older people are more vulnerable to financial exploitation. Often financial exploitation can be carried
out in the form of doorstep scams, over the phone or online. Scammers tend to take advantage of older
people due to them not understanding technology, scammers are also aware that people will make
others aware of scams going around via social media, so they take advantage of that older people are
less likely to know about the scams as they are not on social media. Scams may also include them going
to fix a roof that doesn’t need fixing as an older person is less likely to get up on a roof to investigate the
problem. These scams tend to be a one off from the scammer, so that they don’t get found out. They are
more vulnerable to scams because of it taking them longer to process things, for example, due to
dementia, that people can cruelly take advantage of them because of this factor. Scams may also take
place over the phone, quite often this can be in relation to checking broadband, and the scammer will
ask an individual to say if their internet box is flashing different colours, to then give the individual
access to the computer, they then get access to bank details and take the individual’s money.
Older people in care settings with institutional practices are more vulnerable to experiencing abuse as
the setting will be in control of many situations and routines. For example, individuals accessing care
have less control over when they would like to have their dinner, they will have it at the set time as
everyone else or will go without any food, due to the setting being unwilling to change their routine to
meet an individual’s needs.
M4- Explore stereotypes and attitudes that may be held about older people
Ageism is a form of discrimination based on someone’s age. For example, denying someone a job due to
their age would be ageism. Ageism involves grouping people together. Older people tend to be
, perceived as frail when this is not always the case. This discrimination comes from stereotypes.
“Stereotypes are generalisations that are made, which are often offensive and exaggerated, about a
particular group of people.” (Ferreiro Peteiro et al., 2016) Often older people are viewed as ‘past it’, this
is a stereotype as not all older individuals experience physical and mental degeneration. Stereotypes
may lead to older people receiving a lower quality of service in a shop or restaurant because of the
organisation’s attitude towards them. The organisation may have an attitude in which they believe that
older people are less likely to realise that they are receiving poor service, so they may provide a service
that has had less effort put into it, to meet the individuals needs and personal preferences. Older
individuals may be seen as easier to trick, so the organisation may use this in order to manipulate them
into buying things that the individual doesn’t actually need or want. If people believe that older people
are vulnerable before being influenced by the media, then the media can encourage this belief by the
way that they represent older people, for example in soaps and movies. Stereotypes may arise because
people believe older people are vulnerable, this isn’t accurate for everyone, as not everyone is
vulnerable just because they have got older. Some people may actually be less vulnerable now that they
are older than what they were when they were younger. Older people may also be refused a job, as
employers may be concerned about employing an older person, as they may need time off for
operations more regularly than a younger person would. Under the Equality Act 2010 this is not
supposed to occur but it does and that is usually because the employer has found a way to not be
caught, for example, saying that someone else has more qualifications or more relevant experience
relating to the job that they are applying for. The employer may be worried about employing older
people due to the increased risk of illness or long-term health conditions, as this could impact the
company as they will need to find someone who is able to cover the individual’s job until they can return
to work, this will impact the company financially as they will have to pay for cover more often than what
they may need to with a younger individual as there is less chance that they will need to take long term
leave due to illness. The employer may also be concerned that with their age they may begin to slow
down, and this will impact on their job as they can’t complete tasks to set deadlines; this may also not
be true as some older people are more willing to work overtime as they have less responsibilities as
their children are grown up.
Often older people experience elderspeak, this is when the older person is referred to as dear or using
language that resembles baby talk. Individuals may speak to older people slower and louder than
normal, when in fact most individuals don’t need them to. Older people are more vulnerable to ageism
as there is a stereotype that all older people have dementia, when this is not always the case, some
older people can be very aware of what is going on around them and what is happening to them. If
people perceive older people as more vulnerable, they are seen as an easy target to exploit, this is why
most people who get scammed are older people.
D1- Analyse how the media contributes to reinforcing and also breaking the stereotypes of older
people
The media can either reinforce or break stereotypes. Helen Mirren, who advertises L’Oreal, shows that
you can still start a successful career as an older person, another stereotype that Helen might break, is
the idea that older women don’t wear makeup because some do wear makeup in their older years.
Television shows, such as OAP’s behaving badly, show that older people are portrayed wrongly in soaps
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