8. "CAREGIVER BURDEN, ELDER ABUSE AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: TESTING THE RELATIONSHIP"

Summary: Gainey and Payne write about Alzheimer's Disease and their studies on whether or not dementia proclaims the reasoning behind abuse of the elderly and mentally ill. The conclusion of the study was that dementia and Alzheimer's was not necessarily directly associated with misguided caregivers, but more of the fact that the mental illness and instability cause an amount of stress that then causes abuse and aggression.

Key Facts:

"Among others, those who have a drug problem and those who suffer from a mental health problem have been found to be more like to be abusive."

"The abuse group was less dependent on the caregiver group than the non-abused group was."

"The trans-generational violence explanation refers to the possibility that abusers learned how to be abusive from their parents or other role models."

"The caregiver burden explanation is traced to research on the relationship between dementia and elder abuse. Indeed, research shows that individuals living with Alzheimer's and related diseases are 2.25 times more likely than other older persons to be physically abused."

"An early explanation of this type of elder abuse was that the victim suffered from some form of impairment which made him or her dependent on an overburdened caregiver."

"Essentially, it's not the situational context that necessarily causes burden, but something else."

"What this suggests is that alternative interventions may be needed for elder abuse victims."

GAINEY, RANDY, and BRIAN PAYNE. "CAREGIVER BURDEN, ELDER ABUSE
AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: TESTING THE RELATIONSHIP." JSTOR. SPAEF, 1 Jan. 2006. Web. 31 Jan. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25790690>.