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NH Grapples With Elder Abuse As Reports Soar
By Pat Hammond, The Union Leader
August 14, 2005
A marked upsurge in reports of elder abuse in New Hampshire has prompted legislators to toughen the law in order to keep the bad guys away from one of the most vulnerable subsets of the population.
In fiscal year 2005 alone (July 1, 2004, through June 30, 2005), 1,450 reports of abuse to the elderly were filed with the state Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services. In fiscal year 1981, 239 such cases were reported.
The reports were for self-neglect, emotional abuse, neglect, exploitation, physical abuse and sexual abuse - self-neglect representing far the greatest number at 730 and sexual abuse the least reported at 14 - probably, a bureau official said, because victims aren't willing to report it, especially if it would incriminate a member of their household.
Four bills of particular interest to advocates of the elderly were filed in this past session. Three were held over.
SB 207. Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, D-Manchester, authored a bill that would make the committing of serious bodily injury to an elderly adult a class A felony and doing it "knowingly or recklessly" a class B felony.
Questions about whether existing laws already addressed this matter, how to define who was at fault and the definition of the elderly sent the bill back to the Judiciary Committee for more work.
Rep. James R. MacKay, a Concord Republican who is vice chair of the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee, has sponsored three bills relating to elder abuse:
HB 696 would enhance the penalties for certain crimes against people 65 years old or older who have a mental or physical condition that impairs their ability to manage their property or finances or to protect their own rights or interests.
This bill, too, was re-referred to the Judiciary Committee, which will need to resolve differences over such issues as the financial impact the law would have on the courts.
HB 490 expands rights of access to financial records that are protected under the New Hampshire right to privacy act in order to expedite the investigation of people alleged to have financially exploited another person.
Targeting crooks
MacKay, who chairs the legislative committee of the Elderly Abuse Advisory Council, - established by HHS Commissioner John Stephen in March - said financial exploitation is an increasingly troubling problem, especially for older people.
"A crooked contractor comes to an elderly person's house and says, 'Your roof needs work because it's about to collapse and I will do it for you for this price and I need a third of it now.' He takes the check and disappears.
"We wanted to be able to get access to the bank records of people suspected of ripping these people off," MacKay said.
The bill would give the county attorney authority, with probable cause, to go straight into the records of the contractor's bank without going through a grand jury, speeding up the arrests of con men who are known for moving quickly from place to place.
The bill passed and was signed into law by Gov. Lynch.
"Financial exploitation is a very high priority because a lot of older people of sound mind may be tricked into trusting the wrong people," MacKay said.
Family members might gain access to the bank account of an elder person and withdraw large sums, MacKay said. He advises bank personnel to check out sudden, large withdrawals for potential wrongdoing.
HB 598, which would establish a full-time financial exploitation coordinator in the Department of Justice, prompted concerns over where the money would come from. The bill has been retained in the Executive Departments & Administration Committee.
Pride takes toll
"The numbers of elder abuse reports are going up all over the country," Jo Moncher, bureau chief of community relations for the N.H. Division of Community-based Care Services, said.
"Only 16 percent of abusive situations are reported, leaving 84 percent unreported at serious risk," Moncher said.
"As education awareness increases, the numbers increase. Folks have been leery to make a report if it's a family member. And many seniors don't want to report (abuse) because they're proud. Live free or die," Moncher said.
Lorraine Merrow, a social worker for 30 years, is a supervisor with the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services district office at Littleton, a town on the Connecticut River northwest of the White Mountain National Forest.
To Merrow, the elderly in the district's reports aren't numbers but faces of real people whose advanced age makes them particularly vulnerable to a whole range of indignities - from self-neglect to physical molestation.
A couple - he was 85, she 79 - had not bought food or medications or wood to heat their house for some time when the social worker, tipped off by a neighbor, paid a visit one winter. (The neighbor hadn't seen the man come out for his mail or any smoke coming from the chimney in a several days.)
"They were two proud, independent Yankees who were very self-determining, but they just did not have money enough to go around," Merrow said.
They didn't want anyone coming in to provide services, but they liked the social worker and said she could come back any time. Through patience and diplomacy, the worker over time was able to provide food, medicine and wood, someone to plow their driveway, someone to come in and clean, cook and do laundry and, as their health slipped, a professional home health care provider.
"It was wonderful to see them be able to age in place (at home) for almost ten years," Merrow said. At the end of that time, the woman decided her husband needed to be in a nursing home. That's where they both went, Merrow said, and they're still there.
Domestic violence
Spouses experiencing domestic violence have been helped to leave or stay in the marriage, whichever they wish.
"It is not discussed very often," Merrow said, "but we are coming up with protective investigations with an element of domestic violence.
"After 25 years, a wife fled from her husband, leaving all she owned behind after a long history of physical, and later, emotional abuse," Merrow said.
"She had come to a place in her own aging process where she felt she could no longer tolerate living under those types of conditions," Merrow said. "She said she wanted to die in peace."
In another domestic violence matter, the wife stayed with her husband of 35 years because she did not want to leave. "It was her choice," Merrow said, "and it was OK, but we helped her put a safety plan together with all the information necessary in case she makes a different decision at some time."
"We will continue to support her in whatever direction she takes."
Family members
Merrow, like Rep. MacKay, sees financial exploitation as an insidious form of elder abuse.
"Sometimes another family member moves in with the elder and runs up utility bills and lots of credit card bills on the elder's cards, leaving the elder to pay for the consequences," Merrow said.
"We investigate and listen very carefully to see if a crime has been committed. If so, we pass this on to the local police department of county attorney or the Attorney General's Office.
"And if it's not, we may work with the individual to contact all those creditors and explain what has happened. Sometimes we write to creditors to see if credit cards, in particular, can be waivered. We work with the client in the direction the client wants to go.
"We are often not dealing with the high profile cases you see on TV," Merrow said. "Nobody knows what we really do."
Helping hands
But others can help, Merrow said, by keeping an eye on an elderly neighbor and watching for such clues as evidence of hoarding.
Hoarding, says Lynn Koontz, administrator of Adult Protective Services of the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, has really become a disease. Some elderly save piles of newspapers, for instance, that can block them from getting to the front door in case of fire.
"But we are working with adults in charge of their lives so you don't come in and say, 'Let's get that out of there.' You need to try to work with them," Koontz said, to resolve the problem over a period of time.
"The most important function with regard to seniors in this state," HHS Commissioner Stephen said, "is to make sure we are exercising our best efforts to keep them healthy, safe and living in their communities.
"We need to be vigilant and that may mean looking at a number of policy issues. We have a number of elderly abuse statutes," Stephen said, "but we need to look at making sure that seniors are provided information on where to go to get help."
New Hampshire statutes make it a violation of the law to not report suspected elder abuse. That goes for anybody.
Granite Care
In March, Stephen created the Elderly Abuse Advisory Council with about 40 members from a variety of disciplines.
Stephen said his new program, Granite Care, which provides financial incentives for the elderly to remain at home instead of in a nursing home, will be increasing the number of elderly in the communities.
"Our policies have to be in line with our goals," Stephen said. "One of the outcomes of this council would be to come up with recommendations as to how we can continue to further these goals and some will involve legislation."
"I believe we do have the resources but we need to bring them together so they are not disjointed," Stephen said.
"We are training law enforcement" about elder abuse, said Stephen, a former assistant commissioner of safety. "We need to find a way to enhance the curriculum at the police academy" to include enforcing laws that protect the elderly.
"It's about coordinating, bringing the network together," Stephen said. "We are finding there are gaps, possibly legislative, outreach, education. But before we go out and make recommendations we need to feel comfortable that the system is ready to implement them."
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