Its important because it addresses Ederly Abuse. Ederly abuse defined means any physcial or emotional abuse, physical neglect, medical neglect and exploitation, whether sexual or financial. Physical abuse is the act of causing physical harm to some one and is apparent through evidence of bruises, fractures ect. Emotional abuse is the manipulation of one's role as a caregiver in order to coerce elders to conformity, name calling, threats and often making them feel guilty . Medical neglect is the outright denial or refusal to provide needed medcial care to a person.
Sexual abuse is any sexual act or exploitation against an individual.
Elder abuse has existed for a long time but did not have an legal definition, until 1979. That year a group of Boston researchers used a federal grant to test an hypothesis that something akin to child abuse was prevalent among the elderly. The results of their study, set off alarms about the seriousness of maltreatment to the elderly. Reports of bruised and battered elders neglected by uncaring children was used as shock value to drive home its seriousness during the Congressional hearings in 1981. All of this led to the creation of an legal system of reporting and investigating allegations of suspected abuse.