Prevalence of Elder Abuse is Disturbing

Prevalence of Elder Abuse is Disturbing

Growing old can be a hassle.

No matter how you’ve prepared, there are all sorts of problems – health, frailty and money among them – that seem to lurk around the corner.

One thing that shouldn’t be hiding in the shadows is elder abuse.

But it is, and, stunningly, it is seemingly more common that we might have thought.

A new study from the University of Chicago has found that some 13 percent of America’s older adults suffer from some form of abuse – verbal and financial mistreatment as well as physical violence.

At Village Care, we’re trying to intervene to do something about this problem.

We’re now using the expertise of our Community Case Management Program, something we originally developed for AIDS patients, to help seniors.  Our case management program has become a provider for New York City’s Adult Protective Services office, which assigns cases to us.

It’s difficult and demanding work, but Village Care’s staff has taken to the challenge of assisting adults, many of them over 60, who “can’t adequately take care of themselves or have no one available to take care of them,” reports Ken Stewart, who directs our case management program.

In the first six months of handling these cases, we’ve helped nearly 350 individuals, and we have a current caseload of 78.  Our role can be wide and varied – helping arrange psychological assessments, offering financial management services and even arranging guardianship if needed.

Our main job, Ken reports, “is to get individuals hooked up with someone who cares for them.”

In a handful of cases, we’ve had to deal first hand with abuse:

-- Mrs. G, who is 65, has been verbally and physically abused by her 16-year-old granddaughter, who lives with the older woman.  The granddaughter does not want to do anything around the home to help Mrs. G.  During our involvement, the granddaughter was taken to court where she was ordered to go to anger management courses and has been temporarily removed from the home.  We have arranged for home health aide services and medical care for the older woman so she now has help at home.  Even so, Mrs. G. says she loves her granddaughter and wants her back.  Our case managers continue to work on this case.

-- Mrs. A, 84, has been financially exploited by her husband, who has also physically and verbally abused her.  She has been moved into an assisted living facility on her own.

-- Mr. D, 88, who has Alzheimer’s disease, has a younger son who has been taking his money for his own purposes, as well as verbally abusing him.  Our intervention at this point has arranged for an older son to take care of the father’s finances, and the case manager worked with the younger son to get him public assistance so that he would cease financially exploiting the father.

These cases are especially troublesome because they involve family members.  The University of Chicago researchers have also noted that women are most often victims of verbal mistreatment and that older adults who are impaired are particularly susceptible to abuse.

They reported that with the population of the nation aging and people with chronic diseases living longer, “it’s important to understand, from a health perspective, how people are being treated as they age.”

It’s hard to understand how some will try to take advantage of their elders, or even abuse them.  Although the cases summed up here involved children or a spouse, the research, which was published in the current issue of The Journal of Gerontology, notes that more than half the time, abuse is perpetrated by someone other than an immediate family member.  Often, abusers are ex-spouses, in-laws and siblings.

We talk a lot about respect and dignity, and about how important these are, particularly to seniors, especially as they become frail and in need of someone to care for them.

Everyone deserves to live in an environment where there is someone, or some entity, that cares for them.

It’s disgraceful how many people do not.