Laura Nichols has heard it all — everything from broken air conditioning in the middle of the summer to diapers not being changed for hours at a time. She is with the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program that covers Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, serving 119 facilities and 12,000 beds. WAMU 88.5’s Northern Virginia reporter Michael Pope interviewed Nichols at her office in the Pennino Building at the Fairfax County Government Center. Following are highlights of their conversation.

Nichols on a particularly memorable site visit:

“There was a site visit a number of years ago. The resident was requesting help in the middle of the night, but couldn’t raise anybody to respond to his request for help, so he ended up calling 911, and police came out. We did go out a couple of nights later to see what was going on in the night shift. We did find staff sleeping. We did find that medication wasn’t stored correctly, and that their call system was not working, so they weren’t getting assistance at night.

“There were a lot of meetings. In that case, we ended up working with corporate to get an answer about what they were going to be doing. Obviously they needed a new call system. There was some staff fired in that case. We, of course, cannot guarantee that something is not going to happen again. But we do try to negotiate with them and get it where they see it’s to their benefit to do things the way they should be done.”

On the power of negotiation:

“We have a complaint log on our website, and it’s all the formal investigations done by our paid staff over the last 12 months. Facilities do not like to see their names on that list. And that resolution is not our determination, not the ombudsman’s determination — that resolution is the complainant’s determination.”

On researching a nursing home:

”We always recommend that people go to the facility at least two times. On the first visit, you’ll get the marketing visit where they take you on the tour. And then we suggest you drop in unannounced, usually in the evening or weekends because staffing is different during those times.”

“I think for each family or each resident, every complaint is serious. Obviously there are ones that are medically more significant. Even hydration — that’s one big thing that happens in a lot of facilities, and people may not think, ‘Oh, you know, so they don’t have a glass of water sitting by the bed.’ But if you can’t get out of bed to get your own water, that’s a huge thing, and it has repercussions because not being hydrated affects your whole health. But that’s a major piece. People may not think about it. And, to be fair to staff, a lot of times they don’t have enough staff at the facilities to do everything that they are supposed to do. And a lot of the staff at the facilities work two or three jobs just to be able to live in this area. So the wages in the area, especially for the direct caregivers, aren’t really ones they can live off of for their family.”

So there are problems on both sides. There are staff that maybe don’t care as much as they should. But there is a lot of staff that really do care, and they are trying to do their best. It’s just they don’t have enough staff there to do it.”

On the major causes for abuse and neglect:

”I would say lack of training. Either they don’t know how to do something they should know how to do, and that may be how to deal with a dementia resident who is acting out — has anger issues or something, and how to deal with that person to settle them down. Obviously confronting them is not the right answer, if someone does not understand. So training is a big issue.

I would also say exhaustion and frustration. Hopefully you don’t have anybody in there that does things intentionally. But once in a while there is somebody who’s not in the job that they should be in, and it’s not the right fit for them.”

On the title ombudsman:

It’s originally a Swedish term for “citizen’s advocate.” Usually an ombudsman is an impartial person, but obviously we are not impartial. We do try to be nonjudgmental, as best as anyone can be. But we are obviously working on the side of the resident or their decision maker. So we do take everything into consideration. We don’t just go storming in and say, ‘You’re neglecting this person.’ We would interview all the pertinent staff. We would do a records review, and then with all that information pulled together, we would say whether it was verified or not verified, and then work toward the resolution.”

On the unsettling parts of the job:

“We have to be able to go home and not take it home with us. I think the first few years on the job that was hard for me, to be really honest. I hope I haven’t become cold and callous. But you have to learn to leave it at work. The first few years, there’s a lot of sleep lost and wanting to be able to fix things I couldn’t fix. And I still have that, but I think you learn to try to keep a little bit of separation there.”

This story was written and reported by Michael Pope for American University Radio. You can listen to the recorded broadcast.

Bonnie Klem calls her Adult Protective Services (APS) office in Rockville “chaotic.” It’s full of folders and binders stuffed with papers detailing hundreds of cases of alleged abuse or neglect. But despite that chaos and the grim contents of those folders, Klem is endlessly upbeat.

“What we have to do is walk into somebody’s house and somehow convince them that we are really good people,” she says. “We really want to help, and we just want to take some of their time. You have to be upbeat to get anything accomplished.”

APS investigates reports alleging abuse, neglect and exploitation of frail elderly and disabled adults and intervenes to protect vulnerable adults who are at risk. Klem, who was a field investigator for 18 years, now oversees eight social workers handling suspected abuse cases in Montgomery County.

It’s a difficult job with long hours, but the team is proud of the work they are doing,  says Klem.

Doing more with less

APS is made up of local agencies that investigate suspected abuse cases across the country. But the economic downturn has been tough on the agency.

Congress approved the first dedicated stream of federal funding for APS three years ago, but an appropriation of that money has not happened. Budget cuts at the local and state level have hit the agency hard, at a time when their workloads have increased exponentially.

Klem says her office gets about 60 to 70 elder abuse cases a month. Her workers must make first contact with the person who is suspected of being abused or neglected. Klem says that is probably the most difficult part of the job.

APS workers can’t be easily discouraged, and often must emulate police detectives searching for clues, she says.

Cases involving abuse by family members are often the toughest because the abused don’t want to turn in their blood, and the family members suspected of abuse can be intimidating, Klem says.

In one case, a grandmother was being kept from her family, Klem says. When they visited the home with a nurse and a social worker, the son stood near the door. They asked him to stay out, but he refused, saying they couldn’t make him, which is true. They couldn’t force him to leave in order to talk to the abused grandmother alone.

In the past, both a nurse and a social worker would often go together to the scene of alleged abuse.

“It was a wonderful system because with the elderly, almost always you’re going to find some sort of medical problem,” says Klem.

The nurse could spot signs of physical abuse, while the social worker could talk to the person’s caregiver or family. But budget cuts ended that, and now the social worker usually goes alone, Klem says.

“We’re learning to cope with that now. But do we like it? No, it was something that was unique. But they could cut it out because it’s not required that nurses go out on APS cases,” Klem says.

Staying upbeat in tough situations

 Klem says she isn’t crying though because her office is far better off than others nationwide. But she does worry about the the lack of standards for what should constitute an APS office.

“Because there’s no national standards or requirements attached to federal funding, it’s easy to cut a program that is only state funded because you’re not jeopardizing any other money,” says Kathleen Quinn, the executive director of the National Adult Protective Services Association.

One county in California cut two-thirds of its APS investigators. In Georgia, lawmakers just approved a 20 percent cut to the state agency that funds and oversees APS. Such cuts come at a time when 87 percent of APS units nationwide report having increased workloads, according to Quinn.

“Some of those states have been cut repeatedly,” she says. “So they were cut in 2008… then again in 2009… and then again in 2010.”

Quinn adds some estimate that there are more than 5 million elder abuse victims in the United States, as opposed to 1.25 million victims of child abuse, a problem that has vastly more money and laws devoted to it.

Klem says the sad reality is that most of the time all they can do is stabilize the situation and return to do it again, if needed. She adds that despite only about 20 percent of their cases resulting in happy endings, it’s still enough to make the job worthwhile.

“I always tell my staff, if you’re going into somebody’s house, you really are taking advantage of them,” she says. “So, if you are going into somebody’s house, give them something that they didn’t have before. Like transportation means, medical needs, food, diapers.”

But it all goes back to being upbeat, something Klem reminds her staff of each day in Rockville.

This story was written and reported by Matt Bush for American University Radio. You can listen to the recorded broadcast.

James and Etta Jennings moved to the Forest Hill neighborhood of Richmond in 1959.  They were young – just married – and the first owners of their red brick ranch house.  They had children and then grandchildren, who gathered in their family room for holidays and learned to swim in their backyard pool.

But when their granddaughter, Jeannie Beidler, approached the home on July 27, 2010, she was confronted by a grim reality.  Paramedics, police and Adult Protective Services social workers were on the scene.

“You could smell the stench of urine and feces,” she says, standing at the foot of the driveway.  ”From this point, we already knew what we were about to walk into.”

The Jennings’ son, Beidler’s uncle, was supposed to be caring for them, but it became clear very quickly that something had gone horribly wrong.  The Jennings were living without running water or even a fan.  James was confined to a chair.  His blood pressure was high and he was fading in and out of consciousness.  Etta was living on a broken bed crawling with maggots.

Beidler was overwhelmed.

“To think how could this have happened to her?  I can’t think of a sadder moment in my life or a heavier moment in my life than that,” she says.

It’s hard to imagine how a family home could sour and rot as the Jennings’ had, or how somebody could watch two elderly parents wasting away.  But neglect is not uncommon, especially for seniors with dementia and complicated medical conditions who are also at risk for physical and emotional abuse, as well as financial exploitation.

In a study funded by the National Institute of Justice, approximately 1 in 10 seniors reported being abused or neglected in the previous year, and financial exploitation of seniors is estimated to total $2.9 billion dollars a year.  Victims of abuse are more than twice as likely to die prematurely and more than four times as likely to be admitted to a nursing home or rehab center.

Kathy Greenlee, Assistant Secretary for Aging at the Department of Health and Human Services and Administrator of the Administration for Community Living, calls elder abuse a crisis.  She says efforts to address elder abuse are 40 years behind those of child abuse and 20 years behind those of domestic violence.

“In this society we started and led with children, and we moved to the area of domestic violence and sexual assault,” she says.  ”Each of those fields can contribute and inform what needs to happen with regard to elder abuse. But it certainly hasn’t been coordinated and a comprehensive approach to put together all of these different resources and really focus specifically on older people.”

Greenlee says elder abuse is a problem that is only going to intensify as the population ages.  The number of Maryland and Virginia residents 65 and older is expected to grow by 88 percent in the next 20 years.  The same population in the District is set to increase by 58 percent.

“With more older people, we will have more elder abuse,” Greenlee says. “That’s just the numbers.  Now is the time to pay attention.”

There are significant obstacles to addressing elder abuse.  Sometimes victims are dependent on their abusers and fear what will happen if they lose that support.  Many have dementia and are not able to testify in court.  Dozens of federal, state and local agencies are involved, and sharing data among them has been a challenge.

Advocates struggle with funding as well.  In 2010, as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Congress passed the Elder Justice Act, which authorized approximately $750 million dollars in funding.  But Bob Blancato, national coordinator of the Elder Justice Coalition – says advocates are still waiting for lawmakers to release the money.  He says, in the meantime, many local agencies that investigate elder abuse are underfunded and struggle to keep up with the calls they receive.

“The effort now is to enhance reporting across the board,” he says.  ”But the problem is if you do that too well and you don’t have the resources, then you’re really creating a difficult problem that was unintended.”

Beidler has had to work through many difficult problems of her own.   The day of the intervention, paramedics rushed her grandfather to the hospital, and her grandmother followed later that evening.  Both were malnourished and suffering from dementia.

After a couple of weeks in the hospital, James and Etta Jennings were stable enough to be transferred to a nursing home near Beidler’s house in Charlottesville.  They died within a couple of years, but Beidler says she was grateful they were able to live out their remaining days in comfort.

Beidler ended up resigning from her job in order to manage their health and legal battles.  Her uncle had cashed thousands of dollars in checks from her grandmother, leaving the Jennings deeply in debt, with many accounts in arrears.

Beidler took control of their finances and, over several months, was able to settle their debts.  She sold their house for a fraction of its previous worth, and she worked with a prosecutor to build a case against her uncle, who pleaded guilty to two counts of abuse or neglect of an incapacitated adult.  He was incarcerated for a little less than three years.

Beidler says, looking back, there were people who could have intervened earlier: police who had been called weeks before and even the cashier at the convenience store who cashed her grandmother’s checks.

“Don’t ignore that pit in your stomach that something isn’t right,” she says. “Don’t minimize your place.”

Beidler says it’s a matter of looking out for abuse, and choosing not to look away when you find it.

This story was written and reported by Rebecca Blatt for American University Radio. You can listen to the recorded broadcast.

Rosetta Skipper met a woman at St. Luke’s Catholic Church along East Capitol Street in southeast D.C. in 2007. Skipper’s husband had died five years earlier; they had no children, and she lived alone in her northeast D.C. home. Her closest family was in New York City.

Skipper had Alzheimer’s disease, and was briefly hospitalized in 2007, as her health worsened. That’s when the woman at the church took control of her life and moved Skipper into her own home.

“She had somehow gotten power of attorney done,” says Stephen Skipper Jr., Rosetta’s great nephew. “We don’t know how she did. As soon as my aunt got home from the hospital, it only seemed like two weeks later. This lady, who no one had ever met, was now her caretaker and power of attorney over everything”

Financial exploitation of seniors is a problem that’s estimated to cost nearly $3 billion per year. Now, some states — including Maryland — are trying to put a stop to that abuse. But this type of exploitation is difficult to spot.

Skipper Jr. is able to speak about what happened to Rosetta, unlike his father and the woman from the church, both of who signed a confidentiality agreement after the case almost went to a probate court. Skipper’s father was the beneficiary in his aunt’s will, and the one who kept tabs on her. But in 2007, he starting having health issues of his own and was unable to check in with his aunt with any frequency.

Rosetta Skipper died in 2011. Because she was a former Pentagon employee, an obituary was written about her in the Washington Post weeks later. That’s how her family found out she died.

Dealing with an empty bank account
“We lost Aunt Rosetta and didn’t even know it, ” says Skipper Jr. “And this woman didn’t have the respect to call and tell us. She tried to tell my father once ‘Oh I tried to reach you but couldn’t find your number.’ My father has had the same job for 30 years. His number hasn’t changed in the last 40 years.”

When her family went to claim her estate, they found Rosetta Skipper’s bank accounts were mostly empty. There was her house, but the woman had changed the will to ensure it ended up in her hands upon Skipper’s death. Having power of attorney allowed her to do that. She had also paid herself a weekly fee, claiming it was for the costs of being Skipper’s caregiver. It started at $750 a week, and by the time of Skipper’s death, it was over $2,500 a week. Skipper Jr. says that ended up being her undoing when the lawyers got involved.

“The minute we asked for her tax returns, they wanted to settle,” he says.

Skipper Jr. believes the woman hadn’t been reporting those payments to the IRS. The family got the house back, but could only sell it at half its value. The hundreds of thousands the woman spent on things such as improvements to her house, cars, high-end clothes, and Redskins and Nationals tickets — all that money was gone.

“If this case had occurred in Maryland, it almost certainly would have been referred for criminal investigation,” says Ron Landsman, one of the attorneys for the Skipper family. “That might have led to criminal sanctions. D.C. is just not as aggressive on this issue.”

Implementing tougher laws to prevent abuse
According to Maryland Del. Ben Kramer, 70 percent of the wealth in this country is in the hands of the over-55 population. “That is a statistic that is not lost on the con artists and the scammers.”

Kramer, a Democrat from Montgomery County, has sponsored several bills on elder abuse that have passed the General Assembly. One, which he says is the only such law in the country, allows prosecutors to charge someone for using “undue influence” to get anyone over age 68 to sign over their assets.

“For instance, a caregiver who is taking care of an elderly person, would start to tell them ‘Look, if you want me to keep going to the grocery store, or if you want me to get your dry cleaning, you’re going to have to sign over the title to your car to me,’” says Kramer.

Another bill deals with banks, and just went into effect last October.

“Banks in the state of Maryland are now required to report suspected financial abuse of senior citizens,” says Kramer. “And they are now mandated to train all of their employees to look for this kind of financial abuse.”

Sandy Spring Bank had been doing this on a voluntary basis since 2002. Frank Moran is the director of corporate security for the bank.

“Anything that is out of the ordinary are red flags that they should be looking for,” says Moran. “Are they adding people to their account that aren’t relatives? Are they seeing checks coming across that are signed by the client, but the actual body of the check — make payable to and the amount –are in a different handwriting?”

The bank’s branch staff was trained before the new law went into effect last October. With all Sandy Spring employees now taught to look for those red flags, suspected financial exploitation cases have skyrocketed. In the past six months, Sandy Spring banks have reported more cases than they had the prior 10 years.
John Sadowski, Sandy Spring’s chief information officer, says a lot of those come through the bank’s call center.

“If you Google your own name, you’d be surprised what’s known about you online already,” says Sadowski. “Bad guys can take pieces of information that’s publicly available, and then call our call center and try to get additional pieces of information. I’ve sat in on the call center, and they’ll be people struggling, saying ‘My mom was married three times before and her maiden name was… umm,’ trying to get the rep to fill in the blank for them.”

But even with this new focus, financial exploitation is still difficult to spot, especially if it’s a family member doing it. Sadowski admits there is little their bank or any bank can do to stop that.

The importance of the power of attorney
Stephen Skipper Jr. knows this all too well, and not just because of what happened to his great aunt. He’s a branch manager of a credit union in New York City. In his family’s case, he knows there was next to nothing banks could have done once the woman from the church got his great aunt to give her power of attorney. He does wish the banks had alerted them about the changes in spending once the woman started using the accounts.

“Checks written to replace windows in her house, payments on cars, payments on electricity bills, frivolous shopping at Nordstrom’s and Saks Fifth Avenue,” Skipper Jr. says. “Something that an 87-year-old woman wouldn’t do.”

And while he’s able to speak openly about what happened, Skipper still gets emotional when he thinks of his great aunt and uncle, whom he visited often in D.C. when he worked for the United Nations.

“When my uncle first died, my father asked my Aunt Rosetta, ‘do you want to come live with us?’ And she said ‘no, I’m okay. I want to stay in D.C.’ When you’re married over 50 years, and you have no children, it’s just you and that person. And it seems like when this lady came in, she just took everything they worked on for 50 years.”

This story was written and reported by Matt Bush for American University Radio. You can listen to the recorded broadcast.

The course is open only to DA personnel and AAA solicitors. This program and luncheon are provided free!

The Program is being offered in five locations:

June 12, 2013
8A Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30A – 4:30P, Meadville, PA, Allegheny College

June 13, 2013
8A Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30 A – 4:30P, Monroeville, PA, Hilton Double Tree Hotel

June 17, 2013
8A Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30A – 4:30P, State College, PA, Penn Stater Hotel

June 19, 2013
8A Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30A – 4:30P, King Of Prussia, PA, Hilton Double Tree Hotel

June 21, 2013
8A Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30A – 4:30P, Scranton, PA, Hilton Hotel Downtown Scranton

The training is offered in collaboration with the Montgomery, Lackawanna, Washington and Huntingdon Counties District Attorneys’ Offices.

The course is open FREE to all DA personnel (including county detectives) & area agency on aging solicitors in all 67 counties of the Commonwealth.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

For more information, please contact Ronald Costen.

Carrie and her brothers were supposed to all share authority on the Durable Power of Attorney for Mom.  Mom and her lawyer had set it up that way, at Mom’s request. It’s nice in theory, this idea of being democratic.  It’s just not practical. Unwittingly, the lawyer had put the 3 siblings into a trap. One could say “no” to any decision and none of them could move forward.   They didn’t all trust each other and clearly, there was a deliberate attempt to exclude Carrie from the money decisions.

Mom has dementia, Carrie reports.  This makes her vulnerable, even if she is functioning fairly well in caring for herself at this time.

Carrie’s brothers are starting down the path of making themselves suspects of the crime of elder abuse. Besides shutting Carrie out of the decisions, they’ve taken her car, and are using her credit cards for personal things.  This is a brewing crisis.

Here are 7 warning signs everyone needs to know about if this is happening in your family. These are, by themselves, not necessarily dangerous, but any combination of them should raise suspicion and trigger action from those who worry about abuse.

1. A family member becomes secretive about the parent’s finances

In this case, a long standing pattern of making Mom’s books available to all 3 siblings was altered.  Carrie knew what Mom’s  regular expenses were and what she spent every month.  Mom is 87.  When Carrie got excluded from online access to Mom’s accounts, it raised a red flag.

2.  A family member lives with the parent and depends on the parent for financial support.

Carrie’s brother Jack lives with Mom. He has a job, but Mom pays all his bills. This has gone on for some time.  Now, he’s using Mom’s credit card and he apparently doesn’t want Carrie to see what he’s spending.  Sometimes this situation is a recipe for abuse because it’s just too easy to rip off the aging parent, who is vulnerable to manipulation.

3.  A family member begins to isolate the aging parent from others.

When there is anyone blocking visits, restricting access of other family members to the elder, it’s another red flag. The potential abuser doesn’t want anyone looking too closely at what is going on and the method to avoid scrutiny is to keep the elder away from the other family members.

4.  An adult child insists on being present when anyone else is with the aging parent.

This can be a sign that an adult child is threatening the aging parent if he/she talks about the financial manipulation that the elder knows is going on.  If the elder has concerns, the abuser doesn’t want the aging parent to reveal this to anyone and may have frightened the elder into silence.

5.  A family member has a substance abuse problem and has influence over an aging parent with memory problems.

Drug and alcohol dependency can make a liar out of just about anyone who has this issue.  Memory impaired aging parents are “easy pickings” for money to support the dependency habit.  The adult child or other relative uses the relationship with the elder to manipulate “loans” out of the elder and the elder forgets what happened or can’t make sense of it but says yes.

6.  Sudden change in estate planning documents, particularly Durable Power of Attorney, Trustee or signatory on a bank or brokerage account. Cognitive impairment begins subtly at first, but the elder is vulnerable to manipulation even in the earliest stages of dementia.  When names on legal documents suddenly get added or removed, it is a suspicious sign, particularly if there is no obvious need to make such changes.

7.  Kidnapping and moving the elder to an adult child’s home without notice to anyone or discussion with anyone else.

This is a tricky problem.  If adult protective services asks the elder if he/she wants to be with the adult child and the elder says “yes” there is nothing APS is going to do at that point.  More evidence of elder abuse will be needed to get law enforcement involved.  If you are suspicious, start poking into the situation as soon as you see the first red flag.  After the elder is removed to another location, you can lose control of efforts to help.

If you suspect abuse, and want to protect your aging parent, contact Adult Protective Services in your area.  Collect the specific information that made you suspicious ahead of time.  Yes, you must name names, give dates of suspicious activity and provide facts the authorities can check out. It is possible in some states to freeze the elder’s bank accounts pending an investigation.  Our financial elder abuse problem in this country costs elders $2.9 billion dollars per year.If family members get past the discomfort and report abuse, it may do something to reduce this crime.

This article was written by Carolyn Rosenblatt for Forbes.

The prosecutor, Deborah Cooper Nixon, said the alleged scam against Ray White, 88, “is one of the most egregious cases of elderly abuse,” adding: “He was scammed out of everything he owned. He’s now homeless.”

Nixon asked the judge to consider increasing the bail to $1 million, but Jimenez kept Mcilwaine’s bail at $600,000. Mcilwaine was not at the hearing. Another court hearing is scheduled for April 15.

Between January 2012 and March 2013, Mcilwaine befriended White and allegedly coerced White into selling his Juniper Street house and giving Mcilwaine possession of his vintage Bentley and vintage Cadillac automobiles. Police arrested Mcilwaine on March 16 on multiple theft-related offenses and unlawful possession of firearms. Mcilwaine has a long arrest history going back to the 1970s.

White is staying at a care facility in Glenside. Police said they had recovered White’s vehicles.

Retired Navy officer Joe Eastman on Monday hosted a fund-raiser for White at Tazia restaurant that he said raised $3,500. He said he also received “numerous unopened checks” that he will give directly to White.

This article was written by Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman for the Philadelphia Inquirer

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the “over-65 population” is now larger in terms of size and percentage of population than it has been in any previous census. Pennsylvania currently ranks fourth in the nation in percentage of people 65 and older. As of the 2010 census, almost 2 million Pennsylvanians – 15.4 percent of the state’s population – were over 65 and that number is projected to continue to increase substantially through the year 2020.

“The increased population of older Pennsylvanians has strained the resources of our courts and their ability to provide services to these individuals,” Chief Justice Castille said. “The needs of this growing population will continue for years to come, especially in regards to guardianships, elder abuse and access to justice. Now is the time to put in place solutions that will allow older Pennsylvanians to age without worries that they will be abused or their money will be taken.”

The task force is made up of 38 elder law experts including judges, lawyers and social workers. The task force will have three subcommittees, one devoted to appointment and qualifications of guardians and attorneys, a second on guardianship monitoring and data collection, and a third on elder abuse and powers of attorney. The work of the group will take approximately one year.

“As a society, we have increased concentration on child abuse, but the issue of elder abuse has not kept pace,” said Justice Todd. “This task force is the judiciary’s attempt to study the issues under its purview and make adjustments now, before the numbers of older Pennsylvanians and the commensurate jump in abuse, occurs.”

Justice Todd said a quick review of stories in Pennsylvania newspapers illustrates the growing problem:

• A 64-year old Lancaster amputee depended on a personal care aide to help him bathe, dress and fix meals. Instead, police allege, the aide neglected him so badly that he developed skin ulcers deep enough to reach his muscle and bone. When he finally checked into a local hospital, doctors found severe wounds on his leg, foot, back and genitals. He eventually lost his remaining leg to amputation.
• A Dauphin County man stole nearly $380,000 from his 89-year-old great aunt, a retired teacher. He was her only relative, lived with her and had her power of attorney. He cashed his great aunt’s pensions and social security checks. He was arrested and charged with theft.
• A dying woman in Bucks County who was about to enter a nursing home asked her neighbor to look out for her personal finances. Rather than pay the nursing home bills, the neighbor allegedly spent the money on numerous luxury vacations, casino trips, country club and golf club memberships and expensive jewelry. The neighbor also used the money for home repairs and business expenses for her husband. She was arrested and faces five felony-related theft charges that could put her in jail for 35 years.

“At least these cases were eventually reported,” Justice Todd said. “The U.S. Administration of Aging’s National Center on Elder Abuse estimates that for every one case of elder abuse reported, five more go unreported. This is shameful, and we need to do better.”

According to research funded by the National Institute of Justice, almost 11 percent of people ages 60 and older, or 5.7 million individuals, suffered from some form of abuse in 2009.

Financial exploitation costs older Americans $2.5 billion nationally, as estimated by the MetLife Mature Marked Institute and the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse. Abuse of power of attorney or guardianship, fraudulent deed conveyances, home repair contractor fraud, credit card and bank account fraud and unauthorized use, pressured sales of unsuitable products, lottery scams, and illegal and exploitative telemarketing and collections practices are just examples of the many forms of elder financial exploitation.

Tragically, elder abuse is also deadly. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, victims of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation have three times the risk of dying prematurely.

(Note: This article is a press release on the Unified Judicial System of PA website)

Financial Self-Defense for Seniors is designed to give seniors guidelines on what to watch for and how to avoid being victims, according to the board. The need for such a publication is based in part on the results of a CFP survey about the financial exploitation of seniors, CFP officials say.

The guide provides warnings about what to look out for and tips for how to avoid being a victim of financial exploitation. It includes 10 tips for senior citizens:

• Look beyond the letters after a financial advisor’s name.
• If you don’t understand what is being sold, don’t buy it.
• There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
• Just because a so-called expert recommends it, doesn’t mean it is right for you.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not legitimate or safe.
• Don’t confuse familiarity with trust.
• The final sign-off should always be yours.
• Make sure the money others are making is not yours.
• Get the full story: Who gains the most – you or the financial professional?
• You have rights as a homeowner. Know them.

This is an excerpt of an article written by Karen Demasters for Financial Advisor Magazine online.  Click here to read the full article.

“People think: ‘Who would ever hit their elderly mother? Who would ever push their grandmother down the stairs? Who would ever steal their grandparents’ social security checks week after week?’,” says Dan Reingold, president and CEO of the Hebrew Home, a long-term care facility in Riverdale, N.Y. “The answer is: about 2 million people.”

To combat these crimes, a handful of nursing homes around the country have created shelters within their own walls to provide emergency short-term housing and health care services to victims.

(Click here to read the full article by US News and World Report)