Caring of Elderly People Free Essay Example, 1250 words

Based on the paper, Harvey Wallace in his book, Family Violence: Legal, Medical, and Social Perspective have cited co many theories as reasons for elder abuse. Out of the numerous theories in this book, I think the Psychopathology theory, Social exchange theory, and the Family stress theory are relevant in this case of Mamie and Meldrick. Psychopathology theory of elder abuse is based on the assumption that the abuser may have a mental disorder (Wallace, p.268) In Mamie s case her only son Meldrick was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia for which he has taken meditations earlier. In normal case, nobody will try to abuse their beloved parents under any circumstances. Only a disordered mind will be able to engage in elder abuse without having any guilty consciousness. Social exchange theory of elder abuse believes that the victims increased the dependency of the abuser results in acts of abuse (Wallace, p.268) In Mamie s case; she was forced to depend heavily on her only son, Meldr ick because of her only daughter s negligence. Meldrick was aware of the fact that his sister may not be interested much in looking after their mother and hence he has decided to convert the pathetic conditions of Mamie into money by collecting as much as money from his sister and from Mamie s social security fund. We will write a custom essay sample on Caring of Elderly People or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The family stress theory of elder abuse states that the induced stress within the family may result in elder abuse. (Wallace, p.268) The family history of Meldrick was not a good one since his wife has taken divorce. The strained relationship with his wife might have developed a feeling of vengeance in the mind of Meldrick. His mental problems combined with family problems might have forced him to keep a sadistic approach towards females. Unfortunately, Mamie, his mother was the only one at his immediate vicinity and he has exercised all his revenge and grudge towards female on his mother Mamie.