BOSTON, Feb. 9
(UPI) -- Authorities in Massachusetts say elder abuse is increasing as more family members lose jobs and investments shrink in the dismal economy.
"Many of the issues we are dealing with are simply related to overload," Dale Mitchell, who heads Ethos, a Boston agency that handles the city's protective services program, told The Boston Globe.
Economic stresses are pushing many family caregivers to the breaking point while social service programs that once helped them also are scaling back, the Globe reported Monday.
Ethos received 134 reports of alleged elder abuse and neglect in January, the highest for any month in the agency's 32 years, Mitchell said.
Ethos is one of 22 agencies in Massachusetts that investigate mistreatment of elders. In years past, about 30 percent of allegations were confirmed, those agencies told the Globe. In the first quarter of this fiscal year, that number rose more than 60 percent, the Globe reported.
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