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More Abuse Cases Seen As Elder Population Grows

By James R. Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com

December 16, 2002
In Monterey County, Calif., the caretaker of an elderly dog breeder was charged with one felony count of elder abuse after deputies found him staggering and incoherent, allegedly because he had been "helping himself" to Therese Dreisbach's medications.

Dreisbach, 72, died of cancer two days later at a hospice, leaving 64 fluffy white dogs available for adoption. Besides the elder abuse charge, caregiver James Hayes may have violated terms of the felony probation he received after pleading guilty to driving under the influence, authorities said.

Though more extreme than many cases, the Dreisbach incident illustrates the growing risk of elder abuse, a problem that the World Health Organization (WHO) says is likely to increase drastically by 2025, when the earth's population of older persons is expected to have doubled.

Abuse takes many forms and occurs both in the home and in institutions. Physical and psychological abuse may be the most obvious, though the problem of financial abuse can be equally devastating and much less apparent to third parties.

The scope of the problem is difficult to measure because of underreporting and the lack of a standardized reporting system. But the WHO estimates that between four and six percent of the world's elderly have experienced some form of abuse at home.

The incidence of abuse is thought to be much higher in institutions. The WHO cited a U.S. survey which found that 36 percent of nursing home staff said they had witnesses at least one incident of physical abuse in the previous year, and 10 percent admitted having committed at least one act of physical abuse. Forty percent said they had psychologically abused those in their care.

Another case in point: the recent arrest of Pamela Mills, 51, of Auburn, Wash., for the stabbing deaths of her parents, aged 84 and 81. Police said they found Mills wandering on the street Dec. 1, spattered with blood and apparently in shock. She allegedly told investigators that her parents had criticized her caregiving skills.

In Albany County, New York, a 49-year-old man was indicted last week on charges of mistreating his 76-year-old mother. Kenneth Turner allegedly took his mother's walker away from her, threw her food on the floor and, on at least one occasion, punched her in the head with an ice pack. He was charged with endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person.

Police and prosecutors say that elder abuse cases are problematic for them. Often, just as in spousal abuse cases, the abused person refuses to testify and the case must be dropped.

The New York case is being prosecuted under a four-year-old state law that is intended to provide more severe punishment than would a simple assault charge for caregivers, both paid and volunteer, who abuse those in their care. But the law has been successfully prosecuted only seven times statewide during the four years it's been in effect, state officials said.

Some law enforcement and social service officials say that raising the severity of caregiver abuse to a felony, as New York has done, sometimes makes the problem worse by driving it farther underground.

"A lot of these cases involve family members, but if no one is supervising or helping out, who is going to tell?" said Cora Alsante, a Syracuse attorney who chairs the elder law section of the state bar association.

In a growing number of states and localities, reporting abuse is not an option. California law requires that health care, social service and law enforcement personnel report any actual or suspected abuse. Those who fail to do so are subject to fines and imprisonment. They are, however, protected from civil and criminal liability for making the reports.

But critics say the California law goes too far. An elder law attorney said that some of the actions he routinely recommends -- transferring assets from an elderly person to relatives, for example -- could fit the definition of abuse under the California statute.

"This really puts attorneys and financial advisors in impossible situation," the attorney said. "If we do what is truly best for our client, we could conceivably be required to report ourselves under the elder abuse law."

The elderly are also the target of a special breed of scam artists selling everything from home improvements to electric scooters to various financial scams. Just last week, U.S. and Canadian authorities shut down a Canadian scam that used telemarketeres to promise American seniors big winnings in the Canadian lottery when, in fact, Americans are not allowed to enter the lottery.

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