crime

2,280 cases of abuse against disabled people reported in fiscal 2013

7 Comments

A report released this week by the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Welfare showed that there were 2,280 cases of reported abuse against 2,659 disabled people in fiscal 2013 which ended on March 31 this year.

The report said of the 2,659 cases, those who were abused by relatives numbered the greatest at 1,811, while there were 455 people who suffered abuse from caregivers, NTV reported. Other cases included abuse by superiors at work.

There were three deaths attributed to abuse, including a case at a welfare facility in Sodegaura City, Chiba Prefecture, where a 19-year-old boy died from violent abuse from one of the facility’s employees.

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7 Comments
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I believe there are two types of abuse: physical and mental. Physical abuse of the (elderly) makes the headlines if it gets to the police blotter or the hospital emergency room. Mental abuse includes threats and a beating with words - verbal assaults. It comes before physical abuse. The (elderly) person may be threatened with being put in a nursing home or an institution. As with physical abuse, it often happens that there are no witnesses. The victim may not know how to seek help or is too ashamed to.

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This bugs the heck out of me, numbers like this are misleading at best ,are difficult, if not impossible,to verify and typically unreliable as the methods of how the data is collected and reported is suspect.

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The major reported abuses is by family member ... probably only 1 % of the total abuses as elder or mentally handicapped person have no mean to complain.

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To put it simply, the best way to prevent abuse is to make sure that anyone who has a disability is involved in the community and has control over their life and makes their own decisions including information about their rights.

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Having lost my dear mum at a nursing facility due to an abusive male care giver, I am keenly aware of how terribly wrong things can go. Even though I was there every single day, and even though, I had several meetings with staff and administrators in hopes of addressing my concerns for better care for my mum, my worst nightmare, became reality. For nearly two years, I was there from 8 pm to 4 pm, driving 25 miles each way. I always brought the morning papers and her favorite snacks. I made sure to make mum as comfortable, as possible, yet, as much as I was there, and, as much as I addressed my observed negligence of the staff, STIIL, I could not prevent what happened to my dear mum. All it took was one careless care giver to abuse my mum when I wasn't there. She sustained an injury on her hand which quickly became infected resulting in renal failure. Less than four weeks later, she was gone! Before falling into a coma, mum told me exactly how she was injured, but, naturally, their story was completely different, blaming her for her own injury! I called the police who were utterly incompetent in their investigation. It was my word against the staffs. It came down to a classic, "He said, she said," scenario.

Two years later, and ****I am still blaming myself for putting my mother in that hell hole. If only I had kept her at home she would still be alive, today! To avoid such abuse in the future, I strongly urge CCTV cameras in every room. Our parents should never be put in an environment where the opposite of "care giving" occurs. We must fix this reprehensible situation, ASAP! You would not believe what I saw on a daily basis at these various facilities. Sadly, they are all much the same. They are mostly staffed by unqualified and uncaring people who hate their jobs, thus, the neglect and abuse.

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Ah, no surprises here. It's the way Japan runs. It's a bullying society and the more defenseless you are the more abuse you cop.

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Sadly around the world people with disabilities get abused, sometimes at the hands of people who help or care for them. Care providers and personal assistants, family members and service providers whether paid or unpaid can be abusive. When abuse occurs, a disabled person's personal health, safety and emotional well-being maybe at risk, alone with their ability to engage in daily life activities.

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