Elder abuse may grow as population ages

One of the most under-reported types of abuse is elder abuse. With the economy down, experts expect elder abuse cases to go up. But KPCC’s Susan Valot says that’s not necessarily the case in Orange County; at least, not yet.

Susan Valot: An older person, bed-ridden and neglected, suffers from bruises and severe bedsores. An adult son spends mom’s money on himself, leaving her bills unpaid. A caregiver pilfers cash from a confused dementia patient.

They’re all elder abuse, and the Orange County Social Services Agency gets calls about all of them. Dr. Michael Riley is the man in charge.

Michael Riley: We were receiving last year approximately 500 calls per month. Now we’re receiving approximately 600 calls a month. Some of that also has to do with the demographics. We’re getting older.

And so some of that has to do with just as more and more people cross over into quote, the “senior,” there’s going to be more of an opportunity for abuse, obviously. A lot of the abuse, of course, is financial abuse.

Valot: You’d think financial abuse is up because the economy is down. But Carol Mitchell, who manages Orange County’s Adult Protective Services program, says she hasn’t seen a big spike in reports that correlates with the economy.

Carol Mitchell: We would think that would happen and that’s what we would predict, but that’s not what happening. And I can only say that elder abuse is underreported, like one out of every five cases gets reported to us.

Valot: Mitchell says people sometimes are hesitant to report elder abuse. And she says older people often aren’t as visible as kids, who have to go to school – which means people see what condition they’re in more often. Mitchell says it doesn’t help that the state budget’s in trouble and the county’s cut its budget, too.

Mitchell: Social Services Agency has had cuts. My program’s been cut. We’ve had people laid off. We’ve had to take furloughs. And I think with that kind of news going out, that the public may wonder if we’re still in business.

They’re probably afraid to call, like, “What can those people really do for us?” So I think that may be part of it. Or the people that are required to report, they’ve lost their jobs, too! So there’s fewer people, maybe mandated reporters that are actually out there to call us.

Valot: But Mitchell predicts Orange County’s elder abuse figures may change.

Mitchell: I think that we may see a greater increase the second half of the year because it takes a while for the elderly people to be impacted. But a lot of people live with their adult children. There’s still people losing jobs. There’s still people – businesses are closing. So, you know, people may go through their savings account. They may lose their home. And if they have seniors living with them, everybody’s going to be impacted on multiple levels. So I can see that still happening.

Valot: Carol Mitchell of Orange County’s Adult Protective Services says it’s hard to predict. But she knows this: as the population ages, elder abuse will grow.