Crabbit Old Woman

Here is an extract from Amanda Waring’s What do you See?

This powerful award-winning short film, stars Virginia McKenna.

It is based upon Crabbit Old Woman a poem written in 1966 by Phyllis McCormack, then working as a nurse in Sunnyside Hospital, Montrose. The poem is written in the voice of an old woman in a nursing home who is reflecting upon her life. Crabbit is Scots for "bad-tempered" or "grumpy".

It makes me so sad. The fact that service users are still treated like this is just wrong. Not all care is abusive or poor but too much still occurs in Care Homes across the World. Something needs to be done about this abuse before it gets out of hand.

Abuse isn’t as widely report so statistics are few and mainly an estimate.  According to the best estimates, about 1-2 million older people 65 years of age or older have been mistreated, exploited or injured by a caregiver. Frequency estimates regarding the abuse of the elderly range from 2-10 percent, depending on how the study was conducted.

In the UK, Safeguarding Adults is now a statutory duty, however, before 1 April 2015 this was not the case.

This isn’t just a UK issue, Globally, the number of cases of elder abuse is projected to increase as many countries have rapidly ageing populations whose needs may not be fully met due to resource constraints. It is predicted that by the year 2050, the global population of people aged 60 years and older will more than double, from 900 million in 2015 to about 2 billion, with the vast majority of older people living in low- and middle-income countries. If the proportion of elder abuse victims remains constant, the number of victims will increase rapidly due to population ageing, growing to 320 million victims by 2050.

It is clear that the care system 'disintegrating', with thousands of pensioners in care homes and their own homes being left to be abused, even though concerns had been raised.

Last year research found nine in ten care workers have witnessed abuse in homes with pensioners tied to chairs, starved and turned into the victims of cruel pranks. Widespread neglect and attacks on care home residents, with psychological games most commonly cited as the type of abuse witnessed.

Yet, Care Workers are still not regulated unlike other Health Professionals who require a PIN or Registration to work within the Care Arena.

You can purchase the full Film: What do you See from Amazon for £20