Examining Strategies to Prevent Elder Abuse

According to the National Institute on Aging, each year hundreds of thousands of adults over the age of 60 are abused, neglected, or financially exploited. This is called elder abuse. Abuse can happen in many places, including the older person's home, a family member's house, an assisted living facility, or a nursing home. This panel examines the various types of elder abuse and considers strategies to prevent it.

Guests Include:
Carol Silver Elliott, President & CEO, Jewish Home Family
Sharon Rivenson Mark, Esq., Elder Law Attorney
Amrit Walia, New Jersey Regional Managing Director, Wells Fargo Private Bank
Mark Pass, MD, Geriatrician, Hackensack Meridian Health & Jersey Shore Geriatrics

1/12/2019 #3128

Excerpt:

"Welcome to Caucus. I'm Steve Adubato. You know, the National Institute on Aging says that each year, countless adults over the age of 60 are abused, neglected, or financially victimized. Joining me here in the studio to discuss the signs of elder abuse and ways to prevent it, we are joined by Carol Silver Elliott, President and CEO of Jewish Home Family, Amrit Walia, who is New Jersey Regional Managing Director, Wells Fargo Private Bank, Sharon Rivenson Mark, Elder Law Attorney and Private Practice, and finally, Doctor Mark Pass, a geriatrician at Hackensack Meridian Health. I want to thank you all for joining us in this very important discussion. Doctor Pass, let me ask you, the term "elder abuse", not a lot of people have heard of it. What does it mean? It usually means one of three things. Either someone has been neglected by someone who's caring for them, someone's been physically abused by someone who's caring for them, or someone's neglecting themself - not taking care of themself when they should. And what I'm curious about is, Carol, how prevalent? We're gonna get into some of the financial issues in a minute. Sure. But how prevalent is what we're talking about? The estimates that we have read indicate that between three and a half and five million older adults are victims of abuse in this country alone every year. It is a huge problem. Who's doing the victimizing? The abusing? So there are lots of answers to that question. But we happen to run an elder abuse shelter, and we are linked to the other shelters around the country. And what we see is most often it is a family member. Often it's an adult child or an adult grandchild who's moved back into the home, and is abusing their loved one, if you will, physically, verbally, sexually, and always financially. Now your type of org... I shouldn't say your type of organization, but a shelter like yours, how many do we have in the nation? There are sixteen. In the entire country? In the entire country. Because? You know, I think part of it is because there's no real funding for elder abuse shelters. We provide an elder abuse shelter within the walls of our long-term care facility because our..."