CLEVELAND — The National Council on Aging said up to 5 million older Americans are abused each year, whether that is emotionally, physically, or financially.

Elder Abuse Awareness Day was created to shed light on this topic. One assisted living facility in northeast Ohio spoke on the importance on safety for the elderly.

What You Need To Know

  • Up to 5 million older Americans are abused each year, whether that is emotionally, physically or financially

  • Alexis Bedient, the director of Nursing for Fairmont Senior Living, explained the significance

  • She thinks a very important component to stopping abuse is education for staff in assisted living facilities

Alexis Bedient, the director of Nursing for Fairmont Senior Living, explained how significant elderly abuse is.

“Elderly abuse, which is so common in the health care system. I feel like right now you know the CDC says one in 10 elderly people experience abuse. Whether that’s mental, physical, neglect or financial,” she said.

Bedient expressed she thinks a very important component to stop abuse is education for staff in assisted living facilities.

“I think education is the first step in preventing elderly abuse. Kind of what abuse looks like, what are the steps when you witness abuse and how we can really implement prevention? I like to be proactive more than reactive when it comes to abuse,” she said.

She said that she also wants the residents in her facility to speak with her if they ever experience abuse.

“My door is open. There’s never anything to be embarrassed about, I want you to feel completely comfortable. This is your home, you know, we work in your home. You don’t live where we work, so I like to create that atmosphere for them,” she said.

Bedient has hopes that other facilities will follow her lead by putting elderly’s safety first.

“We all have the same priority that, you know, our residents and their safety, their well-being, quality of care is and should be our priority,” she said.

She explained she believes one way to protect the elderly is to bring light to the abuse that they go through.

“The more that we push for the awareness, the more that we bring up the issues, the more we have these difficult conversations and kind of say hey put yourself in their shoes or you know you hear about it on the news, but what if this really was your grandparents,” she said.

Moving forward, she said she hopes the number of elderly abuse cases decrease.