By Gerry Smith Tribune reporter
11:57 PM CDT, April 9, 2008
They studied bruises, bedsores and bank accounts. But for years investigators struggled to distinguish signs of aging from evidence of a crime, and some wondered how many seniors took secrets of abuse and neglect to their graves. With elder abuse reports on the rise, they're teaming up to share information and expertise on suspicious deaths and find ways to protect the elderly.
Since 2000, elderly-death review teams have been created in Illinois and at least seven other states, bringing together a wide range of agencies and forcing investigators to look at their job in a new light.
"It's a complicated topic for the field to wrap its head around because it's looking at dead people," said Lori Stiegel, an attorney with the American Bar Association's commission on law and aging.
Although short on funding, officials say their success may offer a blueprint for the future. In Kane County, the state's first review team has prompted prosecutors to file criminal charges, legislators to enact a new law and other counties to consider establishing their own teams.
But the review teams often lack funding, with Kane County officials volunteering their time and getting donations from legal settlements.The approach would help in "some cases where there might be a questionable death and we may have information that the coroner or law enforcement may not be privy to," he said.Sharing such information could help solve the growing number of elder abuse cases, officials said. From 1998 to 2007, elder abuse reports in Illinois grew 53 percent, from 6,213 to 9,489.Many more go unreported. Officials estimated that 90,000 Illinois seniors are being abused, according to the state Department on Aging.
Abridged
SOURCE: chicagoTribune
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