More than 550,000 elderly Americans are confirmed to be the
victims of abuse each year, according to the National Institutes of
Health, but as few as one in five cases are actually reported
according to the most recent estimates published by the
Administration on Aging.
More than 550,000 elderly Americans are confirmed to be the victims of abuse each year, according to the National Institutes of Health, but as few as one in five cases are actually reported according to the most recent estimates published by the Administration on Aging.
Worse yet, some of the most heinous crimes against elders – financial exploitation and domestic physical or sexual abuse – are among the least reported. According to statistics published by the National Center on Elder Abuse, as few as one in 14 cases of domestic abuse and one in 25 cases of financial exploitation are reported, and most of these crimes are carried out on elderly Americans by their own family members.
In fact, nine out of 10 abusers are family members, according to the AOA, and two-thirds of those family members are spouses or adult children of the victim.
“Primarily we are dealing with family members or hired care givers,” said Dan Nishigaya, deputy district attorney for the Physical Abuse of Children and Elders Unit in Santa Clara County. “The majority of our elder abuse cases fall into those two categories.”
Often an adult child will simply neglect an older parent after taking on the responsibility for the parent’s care, said Nishigaya. The office also receives frequent reports where adult children are living in the homes of their parents and disputes arise, leading the perpetrator to discontinue care for the parent, he said, but the office does not always prosecute offenders.
Some elderly clients do not wish to cooperate with the county agency, either out of fear of losing their sole care provider or shame at having been taken advantage of, said Nishigaya.
Often, it is difficult to say what has taken place in the home because elderly victims tend to be isolated or there may be an issue of infirmity where the person is not able to speak for him or herself. People over the age of 80 are two to three times as likely to suffer neglect as other seniors, according to the AOA.
“What qualifies as physical elder abuse is the infliction of unjustifiable physical pain or mental abuse,” said Nishigaya. “By requiring that the physical pain or mental suffering or mental pain be unjustifiable, the law considers that there may be circumstances where an amount of physical pain may be necessary for restraint or treatment.”
In conducting an investigation, Nishigaya said he asks several questions. How excessive is the conduct? What are the reasons for the conduct? And what is the totality of the circumstances? These determine whether he will prosecute a reported offender.
Signs of abuse can be difficult to pick up on in an elderly person, according to Anna Valentine, director of nursing services for the William and Inez Maybe Skilled Nursing Facility at Hazel Hawkins Hospital in Hollister.
One of the most direct ways to discover a problem would be through a direct complaint by an elderly patient, but those are rare. Instead, nursing home employees, all of whom are mandated state reporters, may notice behavior changes or patterns that don’t seem quite right, she said.
“It could be someone starts to act differently,” said Valentine. “The resident could say they didn’t want a certain person around them or they could just start screaming when the offender came in.”
There could be physical signs of abuse, said Valentine, in the form of unexplained and frequent bruising or an unexplained fall. Other times, staff may notice the uneasy feeling they get from a very over-attentive relative or a relative who over-complains about the cost of the facility.
Financial abuse may be suspected if the elderly patient’s caregiver has a failure to pay the bill or respond to phone calls from the nursing home’s business office, said Valentine. Or, they may have failed to apply for Medi-Cal or fill out Medicare forms, pay their pharmacy bills or pay another health care provider’s bill, she said.
If you suspect a case of elder abuse, it likely will not help to speak with the suspected abuser, according to information provided by the Mayo Clinic. However, it is in your elderly acquaintance’s best interest for you to report the suspected abuse.
If you feel there is an imminent threat to an elderly person based on domestic abuse patterns, the AOA recommends calling the police. Otherwise, abuse cases may be reported to Adult Protective Services by calling (408) 928-3860 or (800) 414-2002.
