Emergence of Elder Abuse Nationwide and in Maine

by Nicolas Parasie

WASHINGTON - The Bangor-based organization Spruce Run, which serves victims of domestic abuse, has received $42,488 in federal funds to improve its services to the victims of elder abuse beginning next spring.

Two years ago, Meg London of Family Crisis Services (FCS), which has worked with victims of domestic abuse in Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties since 1977, concluded that the problem of elder abuse was too often marginalized. So she decided to establish the Elder Advocate program to prevent elder abuse and to help victims.

"Elder people don't come to us, so we have to reach out to them," London said.

The decisions by Spruce Run and FCS to extend their services to abused senior citizens are evidence of the slow public emergence of a problem that feelings of shame and guilt have kept below the surface for many years.

The absence of federal laws on the subject has made coping with the elder abuse problem more difficult.

"There is federal legislation on domestic violence, child abuse, even on pet abuse, but nothing on elder abuse is current," said Debbie D. Didominicus, president of the Elder Abuse Institute of Maine.

But now, on both the federal and state levels, significant signals are being given that law enforcers will take on the issue.

Substantial numbers of Maine's seniors are victims of some form of abuse, in many cases inflicted by family members and other caregivers , according to Maine state officials and advocacy groups.

How many is unknown because elder abuse is a crime that goes largely unreported, according to these and other experts. Moreover, national and local crime reports do not list elder abuse as a separate category.

The National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), which works to promote understanding and action on elder abuse, estimates that each year, 4 to 6 percent of Americans 60 and older encounter some form of abuse. The center reported that more than 500,000 Americans age 60 and over were victims of domestic abuse in 1996. And a bill now before the Senate Special Committee on Aging suggests that the total number of cases could be as high as 5 million a year.

Moreover, an NCEA study estimates that an alarming 84 per cent of elder abuse cases are not reported.

"It's a dirty secret no one wants to talk about," said Didominicus.

Particularly in cases of financial exploitation by relatives, she added, "people don't want a family member to go to jail; they just want their money back."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Maine has 238,099 residents 60 and older, representing 19 per cent of its population. Rickard Hamilton, president of the National Association of Adult Protective Services Administrators, estimated that about 12,000 of them, or 5 percent, have been victims of abuse.

"The problem with current crime data is that they never considered elder abuse," he said.

Elder abuse can be physical, emotional or sexual or involve exploitation, neglect (including self-neglect) or abandonment, according to the National Center on Elder Abuse.

During an October hearing before the Senate Aging Committee, experts testified the most common forms of elder abuse were neglect, emotional or psychological abuse and financial exploitation. The latter can include stealing, larceny by false pretense, embezzlement, forgery, extortion, burglary and robbery.

Michael P. Cantara, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said in an interview that in some cases, workers hired to do small jobs around the house win the trust of older people and steal their money. Sometimes, he said, they "grossly" overcharge for the work they do.

Hamilton said in an interview that older people are reluctant to report abuse "because of shame, guilt and fear of the unknown." Moreover, he said, many of the perpetrators are family members.

To Hamilton, America is "in the same situation [with elder abuse] as child abuse and domestic abuse was 20 years ago."

Cantara suggested that increased public awareness would lead to improvements in detecting, preventing and treating elder abuse cases.

"There has been much progress in child abuse and domestic violence that is due to 22 to 25 years campaigning on the part of advocacy groups and the government," he said. "In the battle against elder abuse, we need to train people to become more attuned to the problem."

Mike Webber, who specializes in financial abuse cases for the Maine attorney general's office, acknowledged that there is a problem with the collection of accurate data. But he provided some figures that give a sense of how large the problem is: at any one time, 15 to 20 cases of financial abuse of the elderly are open in Maine, with a total of about $1 million allegedly stolen.

In some cases, according to Webber, family members "take more from the victim than they take care of the victim."

But Congress is slowly waking up to the problem. In February, Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana, the senior Democrat on the aging committee, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, introduced the Elder Justice Act.

"Not one single employee in the federal government is devoted full time to address elder abuse and neglect," Breaux told his committee in October.

The bill would establish an Office of Elder Justice at both the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services and an interagency council that would coordinate federal, state and local prevention efforts and facilitate collection and analysis of data on elder abuse.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins is one of the original co-sponsors of the bill, and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe supports "the concept" of the measure, according to her spokesman, Ted McEnroe.

Collins, a member of the aging committee, said in a statement that "the bill unites the social service, health, and law enforcement communities in analyzing elder abuse, improving the prevention and detection of elder victimization and making sure that mistreated seniors are able to receive needed services."

Echoing Didominicus and Hamilton, Collins said that "Mainers pride themselves on self-sufficiency and value their privacy. They may even be less likely to report abuse or neglect or ask for help."

Congress is expected to consider the bill, which has also been introduced in the House, early next year, according to Scott Mulhauser, Breaux's spokesman. He said he expects the bill to pass with bipartisan support.

Elder Advocate is and soon Spruce Run will work closely with Adult Protective Services, the Eastern Agency on Aging in Bangor and the University of Maine's Center on Aging to organize hearings, send out brochures and put up posters in an attempt to increase the community's awareness of elder abuse.

"We must make people aware that our parents and grandparents are being exploited, sometimes, on occasion, by family members," Cantara said. "Sometimes their trust is misplaced."

Cantara, during his career as a prosecutor, observed the emerging problem of elder abuse firsthand.

"It was a sad surprise that in the domestic violence cases we saw more and more people of 60 and older were becoming the victims of physical and sexual abuse," he said. "People that took care of themselves now rely upon us. They have become dependent on us."