GILROY
– As if families contemplating the often grueling decision to
move their parents into assisted living situations don’t have
enough to think about, they also have to worry that their loved
ones could become included in the more than a million estimated
cases of elder abuse occurring in California e
very year.
GILROY – As if families contemplating the often grueling decision to move their parents into assisted living situations don’t have enough to think about, they also have to worry that their loved ones could become included in the more than a million estimated cases of elder abuse occurring in California every year.
But now there is help.
The state’s Attorney General’s office has recently released a first-of-its-kind guide aimed at preventing elder abuse. Entitled “A Citizen’s Guide to Preventing and Reporting Elder Abuse,” the 36-page booklet provides information on how to detect the most common warning signs of physical, emotional and financial elder abuse and neglect in assisted living and long-term care facilities.
One segment of the booklet also provides tips on how to select the proper care facility.
“Elder abuse can happen in your family, your neighborhood or in a facility,” Paul Seave of the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement regarding the book. “We hope that individuals will use this guide to learn what elder abuse is and how best they can protect themselves and their loved ones from becoming a victim.”
In 2001 approximately 225,000 cases of elder abuse were reported in California, and it is estimated that for every documented case five more go unreported, Seave said.
The new guide is the first of several outreach programs funded by a three-year, $6 million grant received by the Attorney General’s Office to create a statewide Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse Media Awareness Campaign.
A multi-agency task force that will conduct surprise, on-site inspections of the state’s 1,500 nursing home facilities called “Operations Guardians” will also begin this year.
“A Citizen’s Guide to Preventing and Reporting Elder Abuse” is available online at www.ag.ca.gov/bmfea and at www.safestate.org. Copies may also be obtained by writing the office of the Attorney General, c/o Crime and Violence Prevention Center, 1300 I St., Suite 1150, Sacramento, CA 95814.
