While it is evident that the rates of suicide have gone up, people decide to hide the fact the individual took their own life for several reasons. One of the reasons why people fail to report is due to the social stigma associated with such a death occasioned by the police investigations. The common feeling is that if people fail to report, the police will not visit to conduct investigations that will attract attention, lead to these families and friends of such an individual being stigmatized. The additional reason is the legal hassled involved in such instances. Reporting such deaths is deemed to warrant official police investigations whereby the individuals who reported on occasions have to appear in court and hire lawyers, an issue they believe could be avoided if they did not report.
The law enforcement needs to ensure they treat the reporting individual with dignity, appreciating the fact they have reported and further ensuring they avoid actions that would intimidate the reporting individuals. Offering incentives as rewards to those who report would increase the rates of reporting and information to assist in the investigations.
Question Two
Several reasons exist for failure to report abuse of seniors. Some of these reasons especially in nursing homes are the fear of being targeted by the by the colleagues one has reported. Others include fear of being reprimanded by the management for making them look bad, loyalty to the colleagues is an additional reason for failure to report. When a family member commits the abuse, the reasons for failure to report is either lack of witnesses and in other instances fear of the situation becoming worse for the elder individual who will return to their care.
One action that could be taken is constant visitation and supervision of the elderly individual by several family members. The assertion is that instances of abuse will be noticed by at least one member who will report the incidence.
