Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 1) | Page 65

Older Persons and Neglect

Dear Students of Social Work,
There is now more news about older persons who are subjects of questionable
influence, neglect and abuse or fraudulent activity. This is an area that social
workers should be concerned about and will increasingly come across in their
work. I came across an idea about getting older women to speak about
any such incidences by talking about mothering. The originator of this idea
explains the dilemma an elder abuse victim has in speaking about her own
abuse by an adult child. Dr Judy Smith, an Associate Professor of Social Work
at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service in New York City
has conducted many research studies on parenting and child development
with samples of low-income women. She describes the stresses of parenting
in later life and especially the predicament of an old mot her who is still caring
for an adult child with disability.

A different approach
We know that some elder abuse victims are often abused by someone close
to them, such as a family member (adult child or grandchild) or a close
friend, which causes victims tremendous conflict when determining how, or
if, to respond to the abuse. Dr Smith’s study attempts to understand the
experience of older women who are currently providing significant emotional
or financial assistance to their adult children by talking to them about the ups
and downs of their life long career as a mother for this particular child. Rather
than focusing on elder abuse, per se, the study is framed around the woman’s
perception of her life course of being a mother and the challenges she has
faced around dealing with a child whose problems in adulthood are currently
causing her conflict, pain or fear.
Professionals working with older women who are at risk of abuse by their adult
children often face hesitations by the older adults to discuss abuse because of
the fear of jeopardizing their relationship with their adult child and/or causing
them harm. By structuring the interview around mothering, the women when
interviewed could be more ready to tell the story of their many decades of

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