You might think that talk about exploitation and abuse of seniors is mostly just hand-wringing. A sampling of news articles--all from a single day--suggests otherwise.
The Lake County, Illinois, News-Sun reports that 49-year-old Geraldine Lopez and her 29-year-old daughter Kristen Glasper were arrested last week on charges that they had used an elderly man's Social Security number and personal information to take out $50,000 in loans in his name. According to the report, Lopez was working as a caretaker for the man when she collected the information. The pair used the proceeds to pay off debts, including Glasper's student loans.
A story in the Joliet, Illinois, Herald News describes the financial exploitation of Gladys Farrington. The culprits, convicted earlier this week, were former Joliet fire chief Joe Drick and his wife Cheri. A jury found that the Dricks befriended Ms. Farrington after seeing her en route to Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Raymond. The 83-year-old woman was then worth about $1.5 million; within a few months the Dricks had gotten her to sign a power of attorney and had used it to take about $200,000 of her money. How did they use the money? They bought inexpensive clothing, new windows for their "lavish" home, a $62,000 Cadillac Escalade, and paid off credit card and business debts.
The Springfield, Illinois, Journal Register reports that 34-year-old Maurice L. Graham, Jr., was arrested last weekend for taking $3,000 from an 85-year-old woman for landscaping work he did not perform. Graham worked for a landscaping company contacted by the woman to build a retaining wall; he convinced her that he should do the work himself, and that she should write him three blank checks for materials. He was unable to produce receipts for the amounts indicated on the checks.
Columbus, Ohio's, WTVM-TV is reporting on a complaint filed by Lori Lamb over the care provided to her 72-year-old mother at the Canterbury Health Center, a local nursing facility. According to Lamb, the facility smelled unclean and awful, and her demented mother was regularly bruised by falls during her six-year stay in the home. A spokesperson for the home explained that "we are in the process of conducting an
internal investigation and at this point we have not been able to
substantiate any of these alleged allegations."
Problems also appear in other countries. The Canadian Broadcasting Company reported yesterday that a Newfoundland nursing home fired a caretaker after she had been accused of sexually assaulting an elderly and incapacitated resident.
And London's Daily Mail reports on an investigation into the allegedly common practice of slipping sedatives into nursing home residents' food. In characteristically proper and restrained English, the Commission for Social Care Administration refers to the practice as "willful maladministration of medication." According to the Mail: "The 'chemical cosh' for confused and vulnerable people can make life
easy for those who are looking after them. But it can also lead to a
rapid decline in health and risk of death for the residents who are
sedated."
These news stories are clearly anecdotal, but are they more than that? According to a 2005 study ("Elder Abuse Prevalence and Incidence") by the National Center on Elder Abuse, only about one in fourteen incidents of elder abuse or neglect comes to the attention of the authorities--and that is excluding the cases of self-neglect. Reporting of financial exploitation is even spottier, with an estimate that only one in 25 cases gets turned in to authorities. The same study estimates that "between 1 and 2 million Americans age 65 or over have been injured, exploited or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care and protection."
The problem is real. The anticipated growth in the elderly population (as we Baby Boomers begin to age into dependence) can only make the statistics more compelling over time.
Robert B. Fleming
Fleming & Curti PLC
Tucson, Arizona
www.elder-law.com
www.specialneedsalliance.com
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