Help Stop Crime Of Elder Abuse

I want you to read this and be outraged. I want you to be so angry you promise to do something about elder abuse before it becomes the scandal of the 21st century.

Experts estimate 10 percent of people 60 and older are being abused today. That would be 4.1 million elderly. In a decade, the nation could have 7.2 million.

Elder-abuse victims, like child-abuse victims, are frail and vulnerable. Their abusers are usually family members. The abuse ranges from physical violence to financial exploitation, from neglect to sexual abuse.

The National Center on Elder Abuse says only 1 in 14 cases are reported.

It took Catherine, 91, a dozen years to make her report.

When her daughter lost her job, Catherine offered her a home 12 years ago. The verbal abuse began almost immediately.

Over time, Catherine became isolated in a bedroom in her own Orange County, Calif., house. Malnourished. Fearful of the rats and roaches scurrying through rooms piled high with trash.

“She would not leave the house,” her son said. “She would not leave my sister.”

Last fall, Catherine broke her hip. Before she was released from the hospital, a social worker came to the house to make sure conditions were right for Catherine’s return. The social worker was appalled. She called Adult Protective Services.

“I was in a walker and I couldn’t get through from one room to another,” Catherine said. “My daughter just kept hauling trash and junk down on me. She told me: ‘You should go to a rest home. I have my own thing to do and I don’t have time for you.”’

Broken in spirit, Catherine finally agreed to move in with her son and force her daughter’s eviction. Before the daughter left, she cleaned out her mother’s checking account and stole her monthly retirement check.

Catherine can hardly talk about her daughter’s abuse: “Oh, lady, you don’t know how it hurts.”

That is a typical response, said Jack Light, head of Adult Protective Services in Orange County, Calif.

“There is a reluctance to turn in your own children. It’s the same dynamic as domestic violence,” he said.

“The scenario may be that the older person feels some responsibility or thinks they can change the child over time. Most of the time, they stay in the relationship because they feel depressed and overwhelmed by it all.

“How can they cope? It’s easier to give in.”

Old women who were never assertive in younger years are particularly easy abuse targets.

But old men also are victims.

Jim, 89, lived with a stepdaughter and her two sons in the home he owned in Los Angeles County. When his daughter called to check on him, he always told her he was fine.

She didn’t know that each night, before he went to sleep, Jim propped a chair under the door handle to his bedroom. He had good reason to lock himself in his room.

His stepgrandsons had knocked him down on numerous occasions, one time breaking his hip. His stepdaughter fed him small bits of food and candy bars. She let him sleep in a urine-soaked bed.

“By the time I found out what was going on, by the time I got conservatorship to rescue my father, he was acting demented,” Jim’s daughter said.

Now that he’s living in a board-and-care home, the old man is regaining some of his lost faculties. He no longer props anything under the doorknob of his room.

Most abusers have drug and alcohol problems and often resentment of the older person for being dependent or even for past mistreatment. Some are caregivers who snap under the stress. An overwhelming number depend on the old person for housing or money.

“The biggest ally of abusers is secrecy,” Light said. “These people are isolated. They end up totally dependent on the abuser.”

Only public awareness can help prevent this crime.

Here’s what you can do: Befriend the old person living in your neighborhood or apartment building. Stay in touch. Don’t let them get isolated.

Know the resources of your community. Calls to Adult Protective Services are confidential. Elder-care nurses at your local senior center often can help identify and intervene in cases of abuse.

Call the local bar association.

Don’t let this crime wave continue.

Don’t become a victim.