How Can We Best Help Seniors?

An estimated 25,000 senior citizens are abused each year in Los Angeles but fewer than 10% of the cases are reported, according to city statistics. To help combat the problem, the city attorney’s office has established an Elder Abuse Task Force and, recently, an Elder Crimes Unit to investigate and prosecute cases.

PAMELA DAVEGA CARR asked senior citizens for their recommendations to curb elder abuse, as well as to improve life in general for older people, a population often in need, even when overt abuse is absent.

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NANCY CASTILLO

74, Granada Hills

There should be more housing for seniors, like the HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] housing I live in. Since seniors are on a fixed income, it’s not easy to make it living on your own.

There are a lot of kids who take care of their older parents and a lot of them lose patience with these older people. We should educate kids in high school by having a class on the elderly, the problems they face, how to deal with them and how to help them later in life. Also, closer ties with family makes children more considerate and that helps when the parents are older.

The senior centers are wonderful, although I think they could use a few more in the [San Fernando] Valley. I volunteer at one and the volunteer programs are great; they are very beneficial to me. I don’t want to be alone, and it gives me good companionship.

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JACKIE PRASKIN

76, Gray Panthers member,

North Hollywood

Seniors need to learn to be very wary. Elderly people can be so gullible and vulnerable. And there are so many people in the world that are out to get people, like con artists. Seniors are lonely, and loneliness and gullibility are a very bad combination.

There needs to be more information available, from churches, senior centers or through the media, on scams to avoid. There should be telephone numbers of places to call when seniors are taken advantage of and even abused. There should be more discussions and press about scams, like public service announcements. The airwaves do belong to us, even though they don’t want to give up the time to do these things. We need to raise consciousness. It’s all about education.

I also think that the younger people should be giving back more. My generation was much more likely to care for aging parents. There was more of a feeling of responsibility. Those things would give a better moral base to the younger generation, and it would be a better world. But in the United States, we do not have that kind of respect for older people.

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HOWARD SHORT

81, Northridge

Social Security does not provide enough to survive on. Especially in this city, because you need a car to get around, and you can hardly get by with all the costs of daily living and medications. We should have more privileges and discounts from businesspeople.

Seniors should be given more allowance for prescriptions, or there should be pressure put on the pharmaceutical companies for cheaper costs. The money for [prescriptions] is outrageous. They take advantage of consumers.

The Valley could use more senior centers. The ones [available] now could use more funding and have more volunteers. I go to a senior center every day. I love the atmosphere because I can sit and talk to friends and discuss current events.

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BETTY SNYDER

75, Chatsworth nursing home resident

This is the third nursing home I have been in and I like it the best. I think that certain nursing homes should have better supervision. I was at one and my daughter took me out because she thought I was over-medicated. . . . I was at another during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and we had no water afterward. My daughter had to bring in some. They should have been more prepared for emergencies and disasters, especially when they are taking care of so many people.

I think nursing homes should have cameras installed and people patrolling the halls for security, like theft or unwanted intruders, and for people in need. More funding for staff and even volunteer programs would be great, too, to get more people to help out.