N.Y. Report Signals Need to Address Elder Abuse

By Justina Wang, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

February 28, 2008

Nearly 1,300 cases of elder abuse were reported last year in the Rochester-Finger Lakes area, and experts believe thousands more incidents went unreported.

Among the reported cases, 686 were in Monroe County, according to a report released Wednesday by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., with data from the New York state Office of Children and Family Services. Across upstate New York, 8,693 cases were reported in 2007.

In January, a state Assembly committee held a hearing on the issue in Rochester, and a public notice estimated that 30,000 senior citizens statewide had been victims of abuse or exploitation.

"We really don't know how much elder abuse there is out there in New York state," said Paul Caccamise, vice president of program at the nonprofit organization Lifespan, which received a state grant this year to run the nation's first statewide study on the prevalence of elder abuse. "It's not the kind of condition that people step forward to report. There's a lot of fear and shame involved in the issue."

Often, abusers are family members or loved ones, and seniors are reluctant to report them, said Caccamise. Elder abuse can include neglect by a caregiver, financial exploitation, emotional stress or verbal attacks.

The most common form of elder abuse involves caregivers using or stealing seniors' money or property. Financial exploitation was present in 43 percent of the cases reported to Lifespan last year.

In response to the numbers, Schumer pushed Wednesday for passage of the Elder Justice Act, a bill that has been introduced repeatedly over the past six years but never passed.

The legislation, last introduced in March 2007, would set up federal agencies to oversee elder abuse issues, help develop forensic centers to document cases, provide grants for adult protective services and other organizations providing care to seniors, and encourage training to help ombudsman programs deal with complaints of abuse and neglect.

The bill is before the Senate Finance Committee for consideration. Schumer, a member of the committee, is also a co-sponsor of the bill.

"If that's passed, it will go a long way to improving elder abuse services around the country," Caccamise said.

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