Elder abuse and neglect in family and society and prevention poicies "The case of Adıyaman, Mersin and Istanbul provinces"

The subject of abuse and neglect has been the topics that are frequently mentioned and emphasized in the women, children and disabled groups in the field of social work. Elderly abuse and neglect as a social problem has not been easily accepted by the society like others. It is not seen as very likely in our society that the elderly living with their family will be neglected by their relatives or face abuse. Even if cases of neglect and abuse are encountered, they cannot be brought to light. Decreases in body functions are observed in the individual who enters the old age period, and the elderly who fall from the active labour force become economically dependent. This dependency starts in the family and gradually extends to relatives and the social circle of the elderly. The duty of care for the elderly who cannot take care of family or relatives is transferred to institutions and organizations. Therefore, the elderly individual becomes dependent on various levels. When examined in terms of the elderly, the changes in the social and cultural areas of the society in this period cause a loss of social environment and status for the elderly who cannot keep up with them. The elderly, who are increasingly excluded from the society and social environment, lose their economic power and are accepted as a burden in the family and society. This is exactly what modern and developing societies are trying to install in people, to exclude anyone who slows down or disrupts the system. As a result of changing behaviours towards the elderly, who are consciously or unconsciously dragged out of the system, first neglect will occur and then abuse, which is a more advanced dimension, will begin to occur. Although the abuse mentioned at this stage is of various types, it is basically all kinds of behaviour that harms the elderly physically, emotionally or psychologically, makes them suffer, reduces their quality of life and causes them to lose hope of living. Neglect, on the other hand, is not directly painful behaviours, but can be defined as not meeting the social, physical and emotional needs of the elderly, and depriving them of their well-being and inadequacy. Elder abuse, neglect and prevention policies constitute the basic framework of our study. The aim of our study is to determine the neglect and abuse of the elderly in the family and society, to find the factors affecting it, and to determine the degree and direction of the relationship between socio-demographic variables and neglect and abuse. In order to test the hypotheses in our research, the data were collected by the questionnaire method and analysed with the SPSS 23.0 program. Our research concluded that the likelihood of encountering abuse and neglect increases in the 81 and over age group. In our study, no significant difference emerged between male and female participants in terms of abuse. It was observed that participants with lower education levels were more likely to encounter abuse. In addition, it has been observed that elderly people who are self-sufficient and carry out their daily tasks on their own are less likely to face neglect and abuse. As a result of the analysis, significant differences were found between the neglect abuse scales and some of the socio-demographic variables, and the results were interpreted statistically and associated with the social work literature. It was supported by a model proposal for the solutions of the problems. Keywords: Social work; Elderly; Elder abuse; Elder neglect