Another Report of Elder Abuse on the Rise (Canada)

Elder abuse on the rise

By: Louie Rosella

 April 1, 2009

Peel Regional Police are seeing an increasing number of elderly people being abused.

A report titled Elder and Vulnerable Adult Abuse was submitted to the force's Police Services Board recently, and it showed that reported cases of elder abuse went up 18 per cent last year.

The police force's elder abuse coordinator, Cst. Lori Betts, noted that "there has been a substantial increase in the number of reported elder abuse incidents."

Peel Elder Abuse Support Program, offered by Family Services of Peel and Distress Centre Peel, was created last year after a report that one in 10 seniors living in Peel is the victim of abuse.
The program helps these abused seniors by linking them to resources and encouraging them to be involved in the community.

........ a Mississauga woman being found guilty of assaulting an Alzheimer's patient at a long-term care centre in Malton.
Brampton court records show Hermina Anderson, 45, was found guilty this week by Ontario Court Justice Elliott Allen of assault and assault with a weapon.
Anderson will be back in court May 11 for sentencing.  

Peel Regional Police say an 84-year-old woman at Malton Village Long-Term Care Centre, on Rexwood Rd., was beaten on Aug. 18, 2007 by a staff member. She suffered cuts and bruises to her arms and face.

Abridged

SOURCE:     Mississauga,ON,Canada

-----------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

Elder Abuse is on the Rise (MA. USA)

Senior Cares: Elder abuse is on the rise

By Jack Cross

President of Home Instead Senior Care

Apr 02, 2009

Mary is 86 and lives alone in a small cluttered apartment. The food in the refrigerator looks long passed its “sell by” date.

Mary has been wearing the same dress for weeks, and she cannot remember when she last had a shower or a nutritious meal. Her adult son lives near but is not interested. Her adult daughter also lives near. She is somewhat involved with her mother, but she has a family and career and is unwilling or unable to improve the situation.

According to literature from the Protective Services office, you should seek help if your caregiver or a family member or acquaintance:

· Is hurting you or threatening to hurt you

· Won’t let you see friends, family or your doctor

· Is not providing food and medications (or is having medications stolen)

· Is taking money or things of value

· Is signing your name without permission

· Is asking you to sign papers you don’t understand

 

The reporting process, as Marissa describes it, is very straightforward. It is designed to encourage anyone who sees a possible cause for concern to take action, or anyone who feels threatened to feel secure about asking for help.

At the Elder Abuse Minuteman hotline number (781-272-7177) or the statewide hotline (800-922-2275) the caller can remain anonymous. A Minuteman staff member consults with the caller to evaluate the problem and determine whether it constitutes abuse or not.

Abridged

SOURCE:   Lexington Minuteman - MA, USA

----------------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

New Law to Strengthen Protection of Vulnerable People (UK)

New law comes into force to strengthen protection of vulnerable people

 1 April 2009

Some of the most vulnerable people in society will be better protected against abuse and poor care as a result of new legislation coming into force today.

People who lack capacity in hospitals and care homes will now be protected by a new law known as the 'Mental Capacity Act Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards'.

The new law introduces new safeguards, so that, if a care home or hospital needs to deprive someone of their liberty for their own safety or wellbeing, they must now apply for permission. The law only applies to people in care home and hospital settings who are unable to make decisions on their own care or treatment and who need to be deprived of their liberty in their own best interests to protect them from harm.

The new safeguards only make it lawful for a person to be deprived of their liberty, based on a rigorous, standardised assessment and authorisation process. It gives people the right to challenge any decision to deprive them of liberty, a representative to act for them and protect their interests and the right to have their status reviewed and monitored on a regular basis.

Care Services Minister Phil Hope said:

"Vulnerable people will now have rights where previously they had none. Before this law came in, care homes or hospitals were able to lock someone up or sedate them without their consent, without that person having any kind of right to appeal or protest.

"This will improve care. The safeguards will flush out poor care and prevent people from being deprived of liberty in a care home or hospital unless it is absolutely necessary for their own safety. It is absolutely right to provide an independent legal framework so that vulnerable people are protected from potential abuse.

"This law will only be used as a last resort where it is necessary to keep a person safe and all other options have been exhausted. Protective care must be the exception and not the rule."

These safeguards mean that, if a hospital or care home wants to deprive someone of their liberty to keep them safe from harm, they must apply to the local health trust or council for permission. This triggers a series of six assessments carried out by trained assessors. These are:

* The deprivation of liberty is in the person's best interests to protect them from harm and is a reasonable response to the likelihood of the person suffering harm and the likely seriousness of that harm.
* The person must be over 18.
* The person must have a mental disorder.
* The person must not be subject to a requirement of the Mental Health Act.
* The person must lack the capacity to consent to their own care or treatment.
* The authorisation must not conflict with an advance decision made by the person; or valid decision made on the person's behalf by a donee of a lasting power of attorney or a deputy appointed for the person by the court.

Only if all these criteria are met will an authorisation be granted. At any stage, the person or their representative will be able to appeal against their deprivation of liberty to the Court of Protection. In an emergency, the hospital or care home can issue an urgent authorisation, for seven days, which speeds up the normal process of authorisation.

Abridged

SOURCE:    Whitehall Pages.net

---------------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

Elder Abuse: Trial to Shed LIght on Horrors in Home (IL. USA)

Elder abuse: Trial to shed light on horrors in home and help hone Illinois law

Kane County sisters are charged in the 2007 death of their mom, 84

By Clifford Ward | Special to the Tribune

April 2, 2009

The poster-sized autopsy photos of Mary Virginia Barry, her body covered with bedsores, made for difficult viewing. 
After jurors at a Kane County coroner's inquest in 2007 studied them, they ruled the 84-year-old Geneva woman's death a homicide. In early 2008, Kane County prosecutors charged her daughters, Jill Barry, 55, and Julie Barry, 48, with two counts each of criminal neglect. Almost two years after their mother's death, the sisters are to go on trial Thursday.

"I think it's a very interesting case, and I think it's a very important case," said Kane State's Atty. John Barsanti, who will personally handle the prosecution.

Paramedics summoned in April 2007 to the Geneva house where the sisters and their mother lived found Mary Barry in squalid circumstances.

The ailing mother weighed only 70 pounds and had not seen a doctor in nine months. She was lying in soiled sheets with ants crawling on her. Barry was taken to a hospital, where she died days later.

Barsanti said Wednesday that the trial of the sisters could help add greater legal definition to Illinois laws that criminalize elder abuse. The law makes caregivers responsible for taking "reasonable" actions to ensure the well-being of seniors, but there's no Illinois appellate case law to help authorities define what is reasonable, he said.

SOURCE:   Chicago Tribune - United States

--------------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

Tips for Detecting Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes

Nursing home elder abuse

April 1, 2009

By Arlene Karidis

Baltimore Crime Examiner

 This past winter, several teenagers working at Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Minnesota were charged with spitting upon, hitting, improperly touching, and tormenting residents entrusted in their care. Unfortunately, this type of elder abuse is not rare; less rare are incidents not quite as severe, though still appalling.

And much of the abuse goes unreported either because seniors are afraid to speak up or, in their physical or mental frailty, they are unable to. If they have no family to advocate for them, the chances of the mistreatment coming to light are slimmer, yet.

Why one human being would be so cruel to another who is almost totally dependent on him/her is hard to completely understand. But surveys consistently show that main contributors to the problem are insufficient staffing and training – and the fact that nurses’ aides charged with much of the residents’ day to day care typically make little more than minimum wage, which does not always motivate the most qualified job candidates to step up to the plate or motivate them to stay if they do come on board.

 

There are multiple tell tale signs of nursing home abuse: 
• Unsanitary and poorly maintained buildings

• A population of residents whose needs cannot be met

• High employee turnover and high employee absenteeism

• Undefined or poorly defined staff duties

• Very slow, or no response to alleged incidents of abuse

 "You will often find indications of harsh misconduct by paying close attention to the residents, themselves."

Abridged

SOURCE:    Baltimore Crime Examiner

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Worth going to source for more tips on detecting elder abuse in nursing homes.

..... AC

 --------------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

Abandoning Elderly Parents - Elder Abuse or Just Family Dynamics

By Andrew C

This is a contentious issue.

Many have to make the difficult choice of looking after their elderly parents at home, or place them in a nursing home. For many middle-aged children, it is a stressful time. Most will try their best to look after their own families and their parents.   They are the majority.

However, there are some who would take advantage of their parents frailty and abandon or abuse them. 

What often happens with some is that the adult children may have been given an enduring power of attorney for their parents. Thus, they can just pay the nursing home bills from their parent’s assets.

No question asked, until perhaps personnel at the care homes discovered that there are no visits from the children; not even on public holidays.

In a worst case scenario, the children may even help themselves to the parent’s assets. They may convince themselves that they should be paid for their efforts in paying the bills and looking after that parent’s finances. Or, they have a supreme sense of entitlement. “Why not, I/we will inherit those assets anyway?”

Can we consider these cases as elder abuse.

Legally, if the children continue to pay the bills but have no other contact with their parent(s) no law has been broken. But, surely there is a moral obligation to visit the parent or parents. It is very difficult to judge such cases, unless the neglect led to more serious results. Then again, who is prepared to report that?

What about a case where neglect of a parent resulted in isolation. No contact, and leaving the parent to live in unacceptable living quarters, over 8 years? There is money to improve the living standard of the man. (see the  Frank Punito Case). That man had worked hard to see to the financial security of himself and his wife in retirement. All he needed was his adult children (who have power of attorney for their mother) to work towards a equitable property settlement.

What is the problem then?

Well, as the wife suffered from a serious mental illness, one of the children had been given the power of attorney to act for the mother. The adult children had the power to act for their mother in the property settlement. And, as the son and daughter live in adjacent property, they act jointly in all matters relating to their parents.
More amazing in that case, is that the two adult children worked in unison regarding their parents.  So, why wouldn’t they act to ensure that their parents live in comfort? Refusing all personal approaches from their father to work towards a property settlement. Inaction for a period of over 8 years is just UNACCEPTABLE in any language!

Can these two be excused for their inaction for a period of over 8 years?
Is this just a case of family dynamics?

Those two must have told their friends and relatives that they “miss their dad dearly”. The one who broke the story of this case received a sickening email; claiming “lies and deceits” and that those adult children “miss their father dearly”. The "whistle-blower" offered to make available, the large box of documentary evidence for the perusal of the anonymous email sender. That offer was never taken up.

How can those two adult children claimed "they miss their father"? According to the father (the victim), they visited him at his “hell hole” (the victim’s description of his living quarters) less than 5 times in 8 years. Yet, they used to visit their mother, at the front of their parents home, at least once or twice a week! So why did they NOT visit their father in the smaller part of the house? They missed him? Who are they kidding?

Should we dismiss this, and similar cases, as “family dynamics”?

Cases that leave an elderly parent isolated, in anguish, demoralized, lost dignity and may be denied access to his/her assets is elder abuse and neglect.
I just cannot agree with any justification of such actions as “family dynamics”.

Not when the elderly parent suffered undue emotional stress, psychological torment, lost of dignity, denied his/her own assets and SHAME.

Do we consider child abuse cases as "family dynamics" and just look the other way?  Definitely NOT.

We should feel just as outraged about elder abuse. 

According to the Toronto Declaration:

“ Elder Abuse is a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older
person”. It can be of various forms: physical, psychological/emotional, sexual, financial or simply reflect intentional or unintentional neglect.

Do not accept abuse of any kind; especially from your own adult children, spouse or other members of the family.

It is a basic human right to live out our later years in peace and safety. 

----------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

Elder Care Laws Needed to Weed Out Dodgy Operators (Japan)

Nursing Care Laws seen ailing/Tighter Criteria needed to define facilities, weed out dodgy operators.

by Asia News

31 March, 2009

 Nursing care laws seen ailing / Tighter criteria needed to define facilities, weed out dodgy operators

Takashi Koyama, Koichi Uetake and Hisashi Kiyooka / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff

The fatal fire on March 19 at a nursing care, facility in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, shed light on problems associated with unauthorized facilities for elderly people.

 

According to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey, as of March 23, there were 464 unauthorized facilities across the country.

Gunma Gov. Masaaki Osawa expressed his remorse over the fire, which killed 10 people, and pledged to introduce more measures to deal with unauthorized nursing facilities.

 

“We should have handled the issue more carefully,” Osawa said.

The Gunma prefectural government first heard about Seiyo Home Tamayura more than two years ago, but hesitated to take steps to learn about conditions there.

 

“Facilities that haven’t notified the government of their operations are not subject to the Welfare Law for the Elderly and we aren’t authorized to tell them what to do,” a Gunma government official said.

The prefectural government on three occasions asked Tamayura to agree to inspections by the local government and submit reports on its management and operations.

 

The Gunma prefectural government held a meeting in April 2007 with the aim of urging facilities believed to be fee-charging nursing homes to submit applications for official recognition. The nonprofit organization Saikei-kai that operates Tamayura did not attend the meeting, and the local government section in charge of the meeting did not contact the nursing home to ask why it had not been present.

The Gunma government initially classified Tamayura as “an unauthorized fee-charging nursing home for the elderly.” However, after media organizations pointed out that the local government did not make sufficient efforts to learn how the facility operated, it said it was unable to define the nature of the facility until its current status had been confirmed.

If a facility declares itself to be capable of accommodating elderly people in need of nursing care a proper license is important to ensure it operates in line with the law. Unauthorized facilities, which are not subject to official standards for equipment or information disclosure, often operate out of public view. In the past, there have been cases in which care workers have physically abused residents at such facilities.

Abridged

SOURCE:    Siam Daily News

------------------------------------------

It is surprising that frail/vulnerable seniors were allowed to be placed in facilities that are not subjected to comply with certain standards. Authorities responsible for overseeing nursing homes and the like, have a duty to 'discover' those dodgy operators of unauthorised facilities.

It is not an excuse for them to cite 'we did not know they existed'.

What occurred in the fatal fire of that nursing home MUST NOT be allowed to happen again.

... AC

------------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

Abuse of Elderly Hard to Fathom ( New Zealand)

31.03.2009

 

THE elderly have played a huge part in shaping Rotorua.

Many have raised families here, been employed, owned businesses or played a major part in leading the city towards the 21st century.

Others fought in wars, putting their lives on the line all in the name of democracy - and so future generations would have better lives.

Today, many of these people are vulnerable, frail, and not only need looking after, but deserve our full respect and compassion.

So, having said that, it is difficult to comprehend why anyone would want to abuse an elderly person.

Our page one lead today unveils some terrible examples of elder abuse in Rotorua - so much so it has prompted Age Concern to shift its focus towards tackling the problem.

The organisation plans to bid for a Ministry of Social Development contract to enable it to administer programmes on elder abuse and neglect prevention in Rotorua.

Government research has indicated 3 to 10 per cent of older New Zealanders - between 15,000 and 50,000 people - are likely to experience some kind of abuse.

These numbers are staggering.

The issue has not had a great deal of exposure in Rotorua. Unlike instances of child abuse, there is no mandatory reporting of elderly abuse, making it difficult to make an accurate assessment of how widespread the problem is.

The examples given are, however, dreadful: A man unable to speak is ripped off by his own family; an elderly woman reliant on her carer to toilet and clean her was often left on the toilet unable to move.

Age Concern is right to start concentrating on these issues - and deserves full support from the people of Rotorua to bring examples like these to its attention.

Rotorua Age Concern vice president Janine Glyde says in her experience elderly people are not the type to speak out. 

One of the stronger comments comes from clinical leader of elderly care at the Rotorua General Practitioners' Group, Dr Simon Firth, when he says "the idea that it's not a problem in Rotorua is just a joke".

Clearly it is a problem. Clearly it is time something is done about it.

SOURCE:     Daily Post, New Zealand

--------------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

Elder Woman Suffering Ten Years of Financial Abuse (Ore. USA)

By Bonnie King

 Salem-News.com

Mar-31-2009

Financial elder abuse is a bigger problem than the authorities can manage. BUT~ isn't that their job?

Erna Boldt came to the U.S. in the 1950's as a war bride. She worked all her life, creating a stable home and a financially secure future.

In 1998 she created an Estate Plan, in which she gave half of everything she owned to her son, upon her death.

"He knew all along that whatever I put in my estate plan, was for after my death," Erna Boldt said. "In fact I gave him half of it so he would have access to everything. But the way it turned out, the courts gave him all of it. It just doesn't stand to reason. Why? Because he had a smart attorney. But I feel he didn't outsmart me because I caught on."

Leroy Newton, Erna's only child, is an investment banker in California. Erna trusted his knowledge and advice. The next thing she knew, her house, her stocks and all her worldly goods were the property of her son. Far before her death.

She appealed his creation of a trust that kept her from accessing her own money, and she won.

Abridged

SOURCE:     Salem News

------------------------------------------------

An interesting and disturbing story. Please go to source.  

... AC

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources

Elder Abuse Often Undetected (OK. USA)

Elder Abuse Often Undetected

By Kaci Christian

3/30/2009

 A former nursing home employee in Washington County, Oklahoma is accused of abusing elderly patients and videotaping the abuse. 31-year-old Jason Lynn Pearl is being held in lieu of $100,000 bond. He faces two felony counts of caretaker abuse. Pearl was a certified nursing assistant at the Silver Lake Care Center in Bartlesville, given a meager one-start rating by Medicare and by the state of Oklahoma. The state Department of Human Services (DHS) and advocates for elder care reform agree: abuse like this happens too often. FOX 23’s Kaci Christian joins us now with more on a problem that often goes unreported.
 
“Experts say many of these crimes against the elderly in long-term residential care are never reported to law enforcement or to the state, and say it’s imperative for us to always be vigilant if we have a loved one in long-term care,” reports FOX 23’s Kaci Christian.

Abridged

SOURCE:   Fox23 OK. USA

--------------------------------------------------

Click for Updates, More Cases and Resources