paper proposal

Elder Abuse

          The topic I have picked to write about is elder abuse and neglect. This is a very sad subject to talk about but it is definitely a very important one. We all know someone close to us who is elderly, whether it is a grandmother, grandfather, neighbor etc. These people have shaped you to be who you are today. So what makes people think that they can beat, sexually assault,steal from or neglect the elderly? Unfortunately it is a growing epidemic in the United States. These people put their lives in other peoples’ hands, or their family did, in hopes that they will be cared for. I read an article on Time Magazine’s website that talked about two cases of abuse and neglect; one in New York and one in Miami. Both investigations found that the operators of these institutions were able to inflict harm with impunity, repeatedly violating the rights of their residents — in some cases, killing them — while being paid millions of dollars by the government for their "care." Worse, when such abuses were exposed, the homes were not shuttered but simply advised not to do it again (Szalavitz). This just makes me ill.

Why is this important to you? Because you are on the road to be healthcare workers, educators, social workers, and law professionals; you will be the key to our aging populations care and well being. In China, their elderly stay at home until they pass away, the oldest child gets the responsibility to care for them. I recently read a report describing the long-term care system of Denmark that makes our system look confusing and heartless. In Denmark, long-term care is essentially free or very low-cost and is available to anyone in need. Nursing home residents pay a “rent” depending on income, but the report describes these rents as “in general not high.” Those who need home care on an ongoing basis get it for free, although temporary home care is free only to those with the lowest incomes (Margolis).

According to the best available estimates between one and two million people 65 and older have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care or protection (Wallace). Nearly 1.6 million Americans now live in nursing homes. That number will double in the next twenty years, as medical science lengthens our life expectancies and the senior population grows. Inevitably, most of us will have to supervise the care of aging parents or grandparents, and every one of us faces the prospect of growing old and possibly frail. Sadly, thirty percent of elderly Americans say they would rather die than move into a nursing home. In California, one third caused serious injury or death, and less than 2 percent of nursing homes had no violations. (Diane S. Sandell)

          My audience for this paper is going to be for the general public who read Time Healthland Magazine because that is who I am writing this article for. Time Healthland Magazine is an offspring of Time Magazine that is all about health subjects. I enjoy this magazine and read news on their website almost daily. This would be a great subject for people to learn about because we are all going to be in the position to care for elderly or we ourselves might be in a long-term facility one day.

Diane S. Sandell, Lois Hudson. Ending Elder Abuse. QED press, 2010. 192.

Margolis, Harry S. Elder law answers Blog. 27 9 2010. <http://blog.elderlawanswers.com/?p=310>.

Szalavitz, Maia. Time Healthland. 7 6 2011. <http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/07/why-so-much-abuse-is-allowed-to-continue-in-residential-care/>.

Wallace, Richard J. Bonnie and Robert B. "Executive Summary." Elder mistreatment. The National Academies Press, 2003. 570.

Response #4

                                             Education Rut

          A few decades ago, children had it beaten into their heads that’s if they worked hard and did well; they would go to college and get a job. Now this is not so much true, kids now see that in our economy even if you go to school and get a degree, it is still not a sure thing that you will get a job (Robinson). The current school system was designed for a different era. It was designed for the 18^th and 19^th century, so how do we expect our kids to succeed when our society and economy is so much different now than it was (Robinson). College is so expensive now that people can hardly afford to go, and if you do go most of the time you have to take out loans and then once you graduate you have to start paying for them. This is difficult to do because the economy is terrible; it is not guaranteed you will get a job right away when you graduate college. There are plenty of people out there who have college degrees and are working at fast food places because they can’t find jobs.

          It should come to no surprise that higher education is in trouble. The price of tuition is skyrocketing and there is no looking down. At public colleges and universities, tuition hikes averaged nearly 8 percent this past academic year thanks to cash-strapped state governments slashing higher education budgets (Glastris).  Community colleges are in such a high demand because of the lower tuition that they actually have to turn students away. I don’t understand why there is such a shortage of labor at community colleges when people are practically begging to get in. You would think the extra money they would get by letting more students in would enable them to have more faculty. There is no doubt in my mind that the school system needs to be changed because if we are telling kids that they need to go out and go to college and they will get a job, we are lying to them. We need to teach them how to be in the 21^st century and how to survive in an economy like we have.

          Most high school graduates now are taking time off before going to school so they can work and figure out how it is to be on their own. A few decades ago, this wasn’t the case. Kids lived at home until they graduated and then they moved out and lived at school or they went into the military and then they graduated and got jobs. I think it is crazy that there is such a high demand for labor, yet it is almost impossible to make it into programs and colleges unless you are wealthy and have perfect grades. There is a large need for nurses right now, but it is so hard to get into nursing programs because of the lack of teachers. I think this country is in an education rut. And we don’t know how to get out of it.

Someplace like America---response #3

                      

“Crumbs for the rest of us”

As I started reading this story and read about the homeless man that was killed in California. I honestly cried. Is this really the country we are all so proud to live in? After reading a few pages I just feel embarrassed honestly. I have known all along that there are many homeless veterans that live on the streets and in bushes or underpasses, but I never realized how they were treated. They put up with death threats, police ambushes and of course, hunger. Knowing that men who fought for our lives and the freedom we have today are living in these kinds of circumstances, makes me feel sick for every time I have whined or complained about something selfish.   
                                                                                                                          As we go through this economic struggle, all we really hear about is the wealthy and not the real hard working and low-income Americans. As Dale Maharidge says “Trillions for the titans. Crumbs for the rest of us.” I think this quote really sums up what is going on in this new great depression we are going through. We see millions of people who have worked in factories and fields that get shut down and sent home because of these new struggles. When really, we have already been through this with the depression in the 30’s. I wonder how we ever recovered from that until just a few years ago when we started this newdepression.                                                                                                                       
 Hearing the stories about these homeless people in California that fought in the Vietnam war, just makes me embarrassed. Something needs to be done about the homeless and everyone else who is suffering and working 4 jobs trying to feed their children, but what? I often wonder about other countries and why they aren’t going through the same struggles as we are? Are we too proud to reach out and learn from other countries and use some of their ideas? Yea I guess we are.

Response #2

Will there be any fish in 2050?

As I was waiting for this podcast to download, I was thinking; what would we do with no fish? Or even, what would fish look like in 40 years? I thought; why would they look different? Well as I listened to these people talk they gave some great points about why fish will be different or if there even will be any fish in 2050. As Villy Christiensen said on the ABC science show that by 2050 our seas will be filled with tiny fish, the large predatory fish will be largely gone (Fisher).  So what happened to all the fish? Well studies have found that are built on global information that because of the way the large fishing fleets have been developing and also there will be consequences from global warming (Fisher). Now, they aren’t telling us not to fish, but instead use all the fish that are caught and not focus on the big prize fish or fish high in the food world.                                                    
Fisheries are a good thing, they do the hard work and catch the fish that we get to eat; they also are jobs to thousands of people. If there were no fish left, or even just tiny fish that people would not eat, than that means that thousands of people are out of a job and we don’t get to eat yummy fish. So what should be done to help in the “war against fish”? As of right now in the war against fish, we are winning. 90% of large fish have been wiped out, and the surge continues (Fisher). Siwa Misangi, a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, says that there should be quotas enforced for catching fish. But, there also needs to be a way to enforce this quota. There have been some success in fishery quotas, but on a global level, it’s not enough. They have found that the European fisheries are the most uncontrolled and they are totally out fishing the sea. A lot of effort will be needed there to control their fishing because poor people trying to fish to feed their families and survive, can’t catch any fish because of the overfishing.                                         
This fear of not having large fish by 2050 is nothing new in the hunting/fishing world. How many other animals have humans made extinct? Lots of them, why do we need to overfish and make this species extinct also? If we enjoy fish now and fisheries give people jobs then there definitely needs to be a quota for the fisheries so that in 2050, we won’t have to worry about not having any fish.

Fisher, David. The science show. 26 02 2011. <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2011/3145424.htm>.