We were sitting waiting for my catarac evaluation at the eye doctors, and we started to talk to the people sitting accross from us about various things, automaed phone calls, and phone scams. It seems that one of the people the woman across from us knew and been taken in by a scam about her grandson being in trouble. The woman from Abbotsford lost over $10,000. So when I read the following story from the Times Georgian paper I thought I would share it to help prevent someone from maybe being taken in by this scam.
Agency targeting elder abuse by Amanda Thomas/Times-Georgian
It’s a scene that is played out in many homes across the country. An elderly woman picks up the phone and is greeted by a voice that claims her grandson is in trouble and she needs to wire thousands of dollars overseas to help him.
In another scenario, an elderly man is being neglected by his son who is supposed to be taking care of him.
Many times, incidents like these go unreported. Even when an incident is reported, it may never go to trial. Elder abuse often goes unnoticed because many people don’t realize that it is a crime, but local advocates are working to change that through awareness and training.
Southern Crescent AAA is a regional agency serving a 10-county region in west central Georgia that includes Carroll County. Southern Crescent’s mission is to meet the needs of older adults, persons with disabilities and their families while helping them maintain a high quality of life in the community. Elder abuse prevention is one of many causes SCAAA has on its agenda.
With the help of a grant from the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, SCCAAN (Southern Crescent Coalition Against Abuse And Neglect) was formed.
“Too often older adults voices are not heard when it comes to abuse, neglect and exploitation,” coalition Chairwoman Amy Hawkins said. “SCCAAN is working to change that.”
A website was formed to raise awareness at www.sccaan.com and printed materials are being distributed throughout the region through senior centers, hospitals, home health agencies and other SCCAAN members. June 15 was World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and the coalition hung banners in town squares to showcase it. In the future, SCCAAN plans to create an educational and advocacy DVD to be used with law enforcement, political figures and community agencies.
People are aware that child abuse is a crime, but the same cannot be said for vulnerable adults, according to Hawkins.
“Some of the forms of abuse cannot be seen as physical marks on a victim’s body,” she said.
An abused elder may also be isolated from the outside world because of mobility issues or family members isolating them from the community. Elder abuse is a serious problem that continues to grow, according to Hawkins. As more baby boomers enter retirement and older adulthood, abuse is suspected to reach epic proportions.
“Limited funding and expensive costs of long-term care have made more and more older adults dependent on family members to assist in their care,” Hawkins said. “Unfortunately, the stress of being a family caregiver and lack of knowledge of support and resources for help only compounds the problem of elder abuse, neglect and exploitation.”
She believes more attention needs to be brought to elder abuse.
“Georgia has laws on the books making elder abuse, neglect and exploitation punishable crimes, but few cases ever come to trial,” Hawkins said. “Often times cases never make it to trial because older adults are afraid or are reluctant to press charges, as more often than not the abuse is being inflicted by a family member that is providing some sort of care to the individual. Dementia and other cognitive impairments can at times also make it difficult for the victim to communicate that abuse was occurring.”
Another issue is the older adult could pass away before the case makes it to trial. Law enforcement and prosecutors may also be unfamiliar and lack experience in prosecuting elder abuse.
“I have heard it said that sometimes law enforcement is reluctant to become involved in what they consider domestic disputes,” Hawkins said.
But she noted that is not across the board. For example, the state Department of Human Resources Division of Aging Services provides elder abuse detection training to law enforcement.
Carroll County Sheriff’s Sgt. Marc Griffith said the department does in-service training and gets a legal update each year.
“Our officers are pretty good about if they personally are unfamiliar with an area of the law, they document it and get it to our investigative unit,” Griffith said. “Then we go from there. We want to educate our officers of course. We want our officers to be able to identify and report on whatever the incident is, get it up the chain of command, get it to the investigative division and then we go from there.”
He pointed out there are many different types of elder abuse.
“There’s physical abuse and a lot of those kind of mimic the cycles involved on domestic abuse,” Griffith said. “You may have a child who’s abused by a parent growing up and then when the parent becomes dependent on a child, the child returns the favor and abuses the parent. ... Your other elder abuse cases usually deal with fraud and deception. When we receive a complaint, we investigate it.”
There were some cases in the past year that the department forwarded to the district attorney’s office. Those cases mainly dealt with financial exploitation.
“We actually made an arrest in a couple of them,” Griffith said.
The department works with state agencies that assist it with cases by providing information on the services available.
“We just have to work with the resources and avenues that are available to us,” Griffith said. “It’s case by case and if there is a case of elder abuse, we’re going to make the appropriate call. If an arrest is needed, we want to do that. If it’s just something where somebody needs services we can do that too.”
Carrollton attorney Jason Swindle pointed out that one challenge in prosecuting many elder abuse cases is that a family member is the perpetrator.
“As with other domestic violence cases, often they are never reported to law enforcement,” Swindle said. “Also, many older citizens are apprehensive in reporting abuse because they do not want to consider themselves victims. It can be a dignity issue. ... The Legislature has addressed the problem of elder abuse to some extent by enacting laws providing for stiffer punishment for some violent crimes committed against persons over the age of 65.
Danielle Jenkins, manager of the Carrollton Senior Adult Center, doesn’t see a lot of elder abuse cases among her clients. But she said it does happen.
“When people come to me individually, I call it in and report it myself,” Jenkins said.
As far as education, the center periodically has representatives from state agencies talk about elder abuse. The center also had local nursing students come out for a mini health fair a where presentation are given on recognizing the signs of abuse.
In another scenario, an elderly man is being neglected by his son who is supposed to be taking care of him.
Many times, incidents like these go unreported. Even when an incident is reported, it may never go to trial. Elder abuse often goes unnoticed because many people don’t realize that it is a crime, but local advocates are working to change that through awareness and training.
Southern Crescent AAA is a regional agency serving a 10-county region in west central Georgia that includes Carroll County. Southern Crescent’s mission is to meet the needs of older adults, persons with disabilities and their families while helping them maintain a high quality of life in the community. Elder abuse prevention is one of many causes SCAAA has on its agenda.
With the help of a grant from the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, SCCAAN (Southern Crescent Coalition Against Abuse And Neglect) was formed.
“Too often older adults voices are not heard when it comes to abuse, neglect and exploitation,” coalition Chairwoman Amy Hawkins said. “SCCAAN is working to change that.”
A website was formed to raise awareness at www.sccaan.com and printed materials are being distributed throughout the region through senior centers, hospitals, home health agencies and other SCCAAN members. June 15 was World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and the coalition hung banners in town squares to showcase it. In the future, SCCAAN plans to create an educational and advocacy DVD to be used with law enforcement, political figures and community agencies.
People are aware that child abuse is a crime, but the same cannot be said for vulnerable adults, according to Hawkins.
“Some of the forms of abuse cannot be seen as physical marks on a victim’s body,” she said.
An abused elder may also be isolated from the outside world because of mobility issues or family members isolating them from the community. Elder abuse is a serious problem that continues to grow, according to Hawkins. As more baby boomers enter retirement and older adulthood, abuse is suspected to reach epic proportions.
“Limited funding and expensive costs of long-term care have made more and more older adults dependent on family members to assist in their care,” Hawkins said. “Unfortunately, the stress of being a family caregiver and lack of knowledge of support and resources for help only compounds the problem of elder abuse, neglect and exploitation.”
She believes more attention needs to be brought to elder abuse.
“Georgia has laws on the books making elder abuse, neglect and exploitation punishable crimes, but few cases ever come to trial,” Hawkins said. “Often times cases never make it to trial because older adults are afraid or are reluctant to press charges, as more often than not the abuse is being inflicted by a family member that is providing some sort of care to the individual. Dementia and other cognitive impairments can at times also make it difficult for the victim to communicate that abuse was occurring.”
Another issue is the older adult could pass away before the case makes it to trial. Law enforcement and prosecutors may also be unfamiliar and lack experience in prosecuting elder abuse.
“I have heard it said that sometimes law enforcement is reluctant to become involved in what they consider domestic disputes,” Hawkins said.
But she noted that is not across the board. For example, the state Department of Human Resources Division of Aging Services provides elder abuse detection training to law enforcement.
Carroll County Sheriff’s Sgt. Marc Griffith said the department does in-service training and gets a legal update each year.
“Our officers are pretty good about if they personally are unfamiliar with an area of the law, they document it and get it to our investigative unit,” Griffith said. “Then we go from there. We want to educate our officers of course. We want our officers to be able to identify and report on whatever the incident is, get it up the chain of command, get it to the investigative division and then we go from there.”
He pointed out there are many different types of elder abuse.
“There’s physical abuse and a lot of those kind of mimic the cycles involved on domestic abuse,” Griffith said. “You may have a child who’s abused by a parent growing up and then when the parent becomes dependent on a child, the child returns the favor and abuses the parent. ... Your other elder abuse cases usually deal with fraud and deception. When we receive a complaint, we investigate it.”
There were some cases in the past year that the department forwarded to the district attorney’s office. Those cases mainly dealt with financial exploitation.
“We actually made an arrest in a couple of them,” Griffith said.
The department works with state agencies that assist it with cases by providing information on the services available.
“We just have to work with the resources and avenues that are available to us,” Griffith said. “It’s case by case and if there is a case of elder abuse, we’re going to make the appropriate call. If an arrest is needed, we want to do that. If it’s just something where somebody needs services we can do that too.”
Carrollton attorney Jason Swindle pointed out that one challenge in prosecuting many elder abuse cases is that a family member is the perpetrator.
“As with other domestic violence cases, often they are never reported to law enforcement,” Swindle said. “Also, many older citizens are apprehensive in reporting abuse because they do not want to consider themselves victims. It can be a dignity issue. ... The Legislature has addressed the problem of elder abuse to some extent by enacting laws providing for stiffer punishment for some violent crimes committed against persons over the age of 65.
Danielle Jenkins, manager of the Carrollton Senior Adult Center, doesn’t see a lot of elder abuse cases among her clients. But she said it does happen.
“When people come to me individually, I call it in and report it myself,” Jenkins said.
As far as education, the center periodically has representatives from state agencies talk about elder abuse. The center also had local nursing students come out for a mini health fair a where presentation are given on recognizing the signs of abuse.
