Long Beach Elder Law Blog

Because of a maturing of baby boomers and a decrease in overall family size, experts speculate that by 2050, the number of people older than 60 will probably be more than the number of younger people in California and around the world. With this in mind, the problem of elder abuse is receiving global attention. This attention can be attributed to the World Health Organization reporting that about 4 to 6 percent of the populations suffers from some type of abuse. The numbers are actually likely to be much higher as much of this abuse goes unreported.

The United Nations wanted to spotlight the problem and set aside June 15, 2013, as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. In addition to raising awareness of the issue, the focus was on countries promoting respect for elders and groups cooperating to reduce overall elder abuse. The Alameda County Library's Older Adult Services hosted a workshop that addressed the topic and provided resources for elders. The seminar brought together a number of speakers from law enforcement agencies, victim advocate groups, and other supporters of elder rights who addressed issues such as definitions, education and proactive measures to combat the problem.

The mistreatment of elders is very common today and many believe that elder abuse is under-reported, but at least as common as child abuse. Many long-term care facilities, including senior care facilities in California, have been found to neglect and abuse their elderly patients. Elder abuse can occur fairly easily because the elderly may be unable to report the abuse themselves, and sometimes family members may not be able to identify signs of abuse or may not visit the elderly patient often enough to notice.

Estimates on the abuse of the elderly speculate that five million or more elderly Americans may currently be the victims of abuse. The National Center on Elder Abuse has divided elder abuse into broad categories. These categories include emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, exploitation and abandonment. The Older Americans Act of 1965 works to create a nationwide system to provide care and services to elderly Americans, and is the organization which oversees the National Center on Elder Abuse.

Every year, seniors in different parts of the country, including California, report instances of fraud to the Federal Trade Commission, the government agency responsible for looking into fraud and exploitation reports. A recent study shows that certain seniors are more prone to fraud than others. During the study, researchers from a Detroit university found that elderly individuals who are disabled, living by themselves and/or suffer from depression are most vulnerable to being exploited by con artists. The scholar created a victim profile after finding that seniors over the age of 60 who were depressed or alone were more likely to be victims of scams or hoaxes.

The study prompted U.S. representatives from different parts of the country to develop a bill that would get law enforcement agencies more involved in looking into elderly fraud cases. If the bill goes into law, the FCC would be required to report any instances of elderly fraud to local law enforcement agencies, which would then be required to investigate the cases. The bill is meant to provide additional protections against senior financial exploitation.

Medicare Part D was created to give seniors in California and across the nation the opportunity to purchase prescription medications at affordable prices. While the program has succeeded at making drugs for the elderly more accessible, an investigation of recently released documents has highlighted some irregularities in the prescribing patterns of several Medicare physicians. This has in turn led some to call for greater oversight of Medicare Part D from the federal government.

Many Americans are relying on elder care provided by physicians at nursing homes or assisted living facilities, but in some cases, these physicians are routinely prescribing drugs that have been shown to cause adverse reactions in the elderly. There are also documented cases of physicians prescribing drugs originally approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat one condition for completely different, "off-label" conditions. Examples cited in the investigation include prescribing anti-psychotic drugs to treat dementia in the elderly and prescribing Alzheimer's drugs to treat autism or other cognitive disabilities.