Elder Abuse Reports Rising

By Dean Mosiman, Wisconsin State Journal 

December 13, 2008

Reports of elder abuse rose to all-time highs in Dane County and the state last year, a new state report says.

Advocates and officials said the rise is likely due to a growing elder population, increasing public awareness and improvements in the law in 2006. 

"I'm heartened by the fact that more cases are being reported," said attorney Betsy Abramson, a leading advocate on elder issues in the state, because a major problem has been that the abuse has been largely unrecognized. 

In one case, a 78-year-old Dane County woman learned her grandson had stolen, forged and passed $1,500 worth of checks to feed his cocaine addiction, victim advocate Lisa Rader said. 

The woman contacted police — against the wishes of her husband and daughter — and her grandson was arrested. He called her from jail and threatened her, Rader said. 

County elder abuse workers had to help the woman secure a restraining order and helped her get through the court process, Rader said, adding that almost all of the money has been returned. 

But in tight budget times, government isn't adding services or more resources to address the issue of elder abuse or to deliver follow up.

The majority of elder abuse cases go unreported, advocates say. 
"In these budget times, will we get any? That's not realistic," Abramson said. "But the system certainly could use it for more direct services."

More funds could be used for case workers or support services to help vulnerable seniors get food or take medications, assist with personal care or cleaning homes, and help them manage money to avoid financial abuse, she said.

 Despite the growing evidence of abuse of vulnerable senior citizens, finding new money or even keeping existing money to protect elders will be a challenge given the state's projected $5.4 billion deficit over the next biennium, said Lee Sensenbrenner, spokesman for Gov. Jim Doyle.

"The governor will do everything he can to keep the funding level protected," Sensenbrenner said. "But the state's financial situation is rough right now." 

Abuse cases on the rise 

In the state, suspected abuse, neglect and financial exploitation cases rose 9 percent to 4,766 in 2007, the report says. 

Of that total, 19 cases were related to deaths and 303 cases were life-threatening, it says. 

In Dane County, elder abuse reports rose 3.2 percent to 447 cases in 2007, according to the county Department of Human Services. 

The number could reach 460 this year, said Fran Genter, administrator of the county's Adult Community Services Division. 

"We know elder abuse is under-reported," said Stephanie Marquis, spokesperson for the state Department of Health Services. "We're hoping, as (advocates) get more tools, we start to see more people reporting."

Population aging rapidly

 The report comes about a year after the State Journal's seven-day series, "Elder Abuse: A Silent Shame," which found the social service and justice systems barely able to handle reported cases, missing the majority of abuse, and unprepared to help aging baby boomers, who will soon flood the system. 
Elder abuse cases will continue to rise because "we have a growing aging population in the county," said county Human Services Director Lynn Green. 
In the county, the population over 60 is projected to rise 102 percent to 132,000 between 2000 and 2030. In the state, that population will rise 50 percent to 1.7 million in that time. 

Education and public awareness are driving an increase in reports, said Scott Martin, one of the county's three elder abuse investigators. 

About half of the cases involve what's commonly classified as self-neglect — seniors who go without adequate food, medical care or shelter, the new state report shows. 

Financial exploitation of the elderly continues to rise, accounting for 21 percent of cases. But in Dane County, the percentages are different, with self-neglect accounting for 42 percent of cases and financial abuse 27 percent. 

"We've reached out to banks and the financial industry," Genter said. "More people know that financial abuse is out there. They're alert to it." 

Green added, "We have no reason to believe financial abuse is happening more in Dane County. We believe it's a reporting issue."

Spending flat or falling

Despite the need, elected officials aren't allocating more money to prevention and treatment. 

Dane County does more than most, but spending on the county's case manager program — which puts case workers in communities — has dipped from $784,000 to $744,000 in 2007 and 2008, and will rise just $5,000 to about $750,000 next year. 

The problem is that the county faces increasing need and mandates in some human services areas but is not getting more state and federal support, Green said.

 "Dane County has held the line," she said. "The fault isn't with local government. The fault is with state and federal government. There isn't enough (funding) to do all of it." 

Spending for elder abuse and related problems remained essentially flat at $1.13 million in 2007 and 2008.

Officials didn't have an estimate for 2009. 

Even with no increased resources to deal with increasing reports of abuse, the county has adequate capacity to handle them, County Executive Kathleen Falk said. "There are no waiting lists for services," she said. 

The county isn't finding every elder abuse victim, just like it doesn't identify every juvenile abusing drugs, Falk said. "There's no 100 percent standard," she said. "But we still want to get better. We re-evaluate every year."

 State funding for elder abuse and related problems remained essentially flat at about $31.2 million from 2004 through 2007, and of that money, funds for the Elder Abuse Program — money funneled to county agencies — is budgeted to stay at $2.2 million from 2004 through 2009. 

Abramson and other advocates failed to persuade the Legislature this year to improve laws governing those with power-of-attorney over elderly people who need someone to help them handle finances. 

Although there have been no significant legal changes in the last year, Abramson and others hope to improve the durable power of attorney for finances law in the upcoming Legislature to protect the elderly from financial exploitation. 

"As resources are difficult, what we can continue to do is all pull together and share information and improve the system we have," Marquis said. 

The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study of 1998 found more than 500,000 Adult Protective Services reports across the country, but surveys of front-line responders indicated that only one in five cases are reported. 

Later studies have estimated that perhaps one in 14 cases in domestic settings are reported and that one in 25 victims of financial exploitation come forward.

More Information on US Elder Rights Issues

Copyright © Global Action on Aging
Terms of Use  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us