Bullying is apparently so rampant at senior citizen centers that it’s causing organizations to create anti-harassment programs for elderly people, according to a report by The Associated Press Sunday.
Senior citizen centers and nursing homes are trying to take action against the surprising amount of bullying between older people, The AP reported.
Senior citizen bullying can be a result of dementia, being a “fish out of water,” having a passive personality and being recently widowed, among other factors, according to a 2017 report called “Bullying Among Seniors: And Not The High School Kind” by the National Center of Assisted Living (NCAL). San Francisco’s 3oth Street Senior Center even teamed up with the nonprofit Institute on Aging to create an anti-bullying program.
“There’s the clique system just like everywhere else,” the 30th Street Senior Center’s former assistant director Betsy Gran told The AP. “It’s like ‘Mean Girls,’ but everyone is 80.” The NCAL’s study also noted that most of the bullying is verbal, not physical abuse among senior citizens. (RELATED: Colorado Town Is Being Used For Wild Sex Parties For Baby Boomers)
“It makes them feel very out of control,” said Robin Bonifas, a social work professor at Arizona State University, “and the way they sort of get on top of things and make their name in this new world is intimidating, picking on people, gossiping,” she told The AP. In Bonifas’s book “Bullying Among Older Adults: How to Recognize and Address an Unforeseen Epidemic,” she asserts that one in five senior citizens experiences bullying. However, there is no clear evidence that bullying is motivated by poor care at senior centers, Bonifas told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The study also advised that senior citizen center officials issue a “No Saving Seats” policy during group events.
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