It Takes a Village to Prevent Elder Abuse

He was 83, lived alone, and his adult son came asking for money. When he refused, the son struck him in the face, leading to 60 stitches. The elderly father declined to press charges.

Two elderly sisters signed an agreement with their caregiver that would give him control of their finances when they died. They were taken from his care after authorities discovered their health had deteriorated rapidly.

A 70-year-old woman recently complained that she’d been suffering physical and verbal abuse from her husband dating to World War II. She wrote to a doctor that things were now getting worse.

These were three incidents--all from here in Orange County--I heard about Wednesday at the Orange County Courthouse, where Superior Court Judge Eileen Moore had assembled an all-star lineup to talk about elder abuse.

Half the county’s police chiefs were there, along with scores of Superior Court judges, county officials, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas, and Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, who was the key speaker.

Moore is chair of the Orange County Family Violence Council. Late last year it expanded its scope to include elder abuse after hearing from domestic violence shelters about the particular needs of elderly victims.

What the Family Violence Council has found, Judge Moore said, is that elderly victims “often don’t want police involvement or prosecution. It’s not because they like being beaten. Rather, they are afraid--of loneliness or worst of all ending up in a nursing home.”

Abuses can be financial, physical, emotional; often it is simple neglect. Abusers range from family members to caregivers to telemarketers.

The statistics mentioned Wednesday may startle you, as they did me:

* A total of 225,000 elder abuse cases are suspected annually in California, but only one in five gets reported.

* More than 300 cases of reported elder abuse are forwarded each month to the county’s Adult Protective Services Division. And these are just about elderly who live in their own homes. Another 35 reports a month are filed involving people who live in licensed facilities.

And these numbers are bound to go up. Rebecca Guider, program manager for Adult Protective Services, said Orange County’s population of 400,000 elderly is expected to double by 2020.

Lockyer added a somber statistic of his own: One of every four senior citizens will suffer some type of abuse.

It’s all the more tragic, he said, because “this is the generation that reported for duty during World War II, when global powers made hate crime a national policy.”

The same generation, he said, came back to accomplish amazing feats, building cities, national roadways, a higher education system.

“Everything they touched, they did it with optimism and purposefulness,” Lockyer said. “We need to have the compassion, commitment and ability to respond to their needs. They shouldn’t just be shuffled off and ignored.”

Being opposed to elder abuse is like being against bad air. Even so, it’s something we have to talk more about, said Pamala McGovern, executive director of the Council on Aging-Orange County:

“Elder abuse is 10 to 15 years behind child abuse in terms of public awareness,” she said. “We’ve got to do more to show people how to recognize signs of elderly abuse.”

Her council, for example, is scheduling two seminars in September for professional people--nurses, lawyers and administrators--who serve seniors.

Here’s a good example she gave: Let’s say an elderly person is signing over everything in an estate to a family or caregiver. Do we know for sure that that person is doing this freely and not under undue pressure? Too often, the latter is the case.

The Family Violence Council sees increased public awareness as one of its key goals, said Pearl Condrella Mann, who serves on its elder abuse committee. But sometimes it’s the elderly themselves who don’t always want to acknowledge they are being abused. Mann said when the local bar association recently offered a free consultation on elder abuse at a senior center, no one was willing to sign up. They signed up in large numbers, however, for other topics, such as estate planning.

It’s just not something many of them are comfortable talking about.

“For many, there is an element of shame, fear or embarrassment,” said the county’s Guider. “The elder often depends on the abuser for assistance, and so may fear retaliation or abandonment.”

Solutions, by the way, can take various forms.

The 83-year-old I told you about? His son was successfully prosecuted, despite the victim’s refusal to cooperate with authorities.

The two sisters? Unfortunately, one died from the poor care. But thanks to quick action by authorities, the second survived--and the caregiver was cut out.

And the woman who’d been living with the brute for more than half a century? They still live together, but the husband agreed to enter a batterers program. Now a social worker monitors their progress together.

Moore said she’s hoping for a “communitywide attack’ on elder abuse. Seems to me her group’s efforts are a good step in that direction.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.