On October 20, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on the perils of family elder abuse and the Elder Justice Act (S. 333).
Sponsored by Sen. John Breaux (D-LA), S. 333 would establish an Office of Elder Justice within the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice to prevent elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The measure also would increase the number of health care professionals with geriatric training. Finally, the bill would provide for a long-term care facility employment tax credit.
In his opening statement, Sen. Breaux said that, “although there is little data on the subject of family elder abuse, we know from the committee’s previous work that one out of four Americans will be a victim of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation at some point. We know that 500,000 to five million seniors are abused every year. Further, we know that reported abuse is only the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ since 84 percent of elder abuse is believed to go unreported.”
The committee first heard testimony from Leanna Watts, a woman who was abused and financially exploited by her son and daughter-in-law. Ms. Watts said that her family drugged her before her doctors’ appointments, and after being declared incompetent, she lost control of her social security benefits and other financial assets. She was forced to live in deplorable conditions in her son’s apartment and could not even use the telephone to call for help. More than a year after she moved in with her son’s family, Ms. Watts was able to confide in a social worker at her dialysis clinic who immediately contacted the state’s Department of Adult Protective Services. She now lives with her daughter in Georgia where her health has improved greatly, but she still has not recovered the money stolen by her other family members.
Witnesses presented a number of other cases of family elder abuse to the committee; in a majority of those cases, the victims were women. An attorney in Massachusetts, Holly Ramsey-Klawsnik, said that in her state, “three times as many elder abuse cases were investigated and substantiated in community, as opposed to facility, settings…a study of 130 cases investigated for suspected sexual abuse of elders residing in the community found that 77 percent of the alleged offenders were members of the elder’s family.” Ms. Ramsey-Klawsnik noted further that many seniors victimized by family members have endured long-term domestic violence.
Mr. Robert Stein, a San Diego prosecutor in the Elder Abuse Unit of the district attorney’s office, explained that a pattern exists in most elder abuse cases. “Typically, a non-working family member agrees to be the caregiver for an elderly relative, typically a parent or relative in declining health. The abuser lives in the victim’s home with free room and board. The abuser is often paid by the county. The abuser, rather than properly caring for the elderly relative, neglects the elderly victim. The abuser’s real motive is clear to live off the vulnerable elder,” he stated.
Testifying on behalf of the National Association of Adult Protective Service Administrators, Joseph Snyder argued that caregiver stress “is not a valid cause for the abuse, neglect and exploitation of vulnerable elders and adults.” He went on to add that many caregivers, “despite enormous stress, do not abuse. We know that the elements of power and control so familiar to those in the field of domestic violence are present in many of our cases. We also know that other characteristics of the perpetrators, most notably addiction to drugs or alcohol or the presence of mental illness are prevalent in our casework.”
During the question and answer session, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) asked why women were the victims and men the abusers in the majority of family elder abuse cases. Witnesses replied that stress is one factor because men are not as accustomed to being caregivers as women, but a definite answer was difficult to ascertain. Ms. Ramsey-Klawsnik again pointed to the example of domestic violence because the majority of victims in those cases are women as well.
