Abuse of Elderly

Abuse of elderly a growing problem in Japan

"A legal framework and support systems are prerequisites to resolving the problem of elderly people being abused by relatives, according to the findings of a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry (Japan) survey.

The survey conducted late last year through early this year revealed that sons were the most common offenders and that one out of two abusers did not realize that what they were doing constituted abuse. It also revealed that 90 percent of nursing care managers found it difficult to effectively deal with cases of abuse after they had been identified.

Surveys conducted in the 1990s concluded that daughters-in-law were the prime offenders. However, the latest survey showed that 32 percent of abuses were committed by sons, with daughters-in-law responsible for 21 percent. Daughters of the elderly were abusers in 16 percent of the cases.

"This result is understandable under the current social situation," Josai International University Visiting Prof. Yukie Nakamura said. "

Medical News Today, UK Web Site, 8th May, 2004
Original Article Source: Ritsuko Inokuma Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Rate of Mental Illness

Rate of Mental Illness Is 'Staggering'

"25% of Americans Have Mental Disorder at Some Point, Though Many Untreated, Researchers Say"

"The study also shows that the U.S. and other industrialized countries are doing a poor job of spreading treatment to patients who most need it. Nearly half of all people with serious mental illness in the U.S. did not receive any treatment in the last year. At the same time, 23% of people with "mild" mental disorders and even 8% of those with mental problems that didn't quite meet official criteria for a mental illness -- called "subthreshold" problems -- got care.

"The fact that many people with subthreshold disorder are treated while many with serious disorders are not shows that unmet needs for treatment among serious cases is not merely a matter of limited treatment resources but that misallocation of treatment resources is also involved," the researchers conclude...."


WebMD Medical News, June 2004

Mental Illness

Mental illness undertreated globally, study shows


" ... many people with severe mental disorders are getting no treatment at all...

"It is clear from these results that there is undertreatment of serious disorders," Kessler told a news conference...

More than 60 percent of people who had serious mental disorders had been treated in Spain and France, and about 50 percent in Belgium the United States, Netherlands and Germany.

But fewer than 20 percent of patients with serious mental illness in Colombia, Mexico, Ukraine and Lebanon had been treated."

Reuters, June 2004

Mental Disorders

Prevalence, Severity, and Unmet Need for Treatment of Mental Disorders

"Prevalence, Severity, and Unmet Need for Treatment of Mental Disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys." - The WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium

"Fifteen surveys were carried out in 14 countries in the Americas (Colombia, Mexico, United States), Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine), the Middle East and Africa (Lebanon, Nigeria), and Asia (Japan, separate surveys in Beijing and Shanghai in the People's Republic of China).

JAMA. 2004; 291:2581-2590, June 2, 2004