MASS. ELDER ABUSE ON RISE

More of the state's elderly are being abused or neglected, as economic stresses push family caregivers to the breaking point and the social service programs that once helped them are cut back. Confirmed cases of financial, physical, emotional, or sexual mistreatment of elders more than doubled in each of the first four months of this fiscal year, compared with monthly averages the previous year, according to a Globe analysis of state figures.

"Many of the issues we are dealing with are simply related to overload," said Dale Mitchell, executive director of Ethos, a Boston nonprofit agency that handles the city's protective services program under a state contract.

Mounting job losses, shrinking investments, and unrelenting foreclosures have caused a new level of stress for families taking care of elders, say Mitchell and other officials on the front line of elder care.

At the same time, programs designed to help ease the burden - such as home care services and a training and stress management program for family caregivers - are being cut, they say. That fuels a rise in abuse allegations.

Mitchell said his office received 134 reports of alleged elder abuse and neglect in January, the highest for any month in the agency's 32 years of running the program. Because of the caseload, workers are more frequently "triaging" cases, investigating only the most serious ones, Mitchell said.

Mitchell's program is one of 22 in Massachusetts that, under a contract with the state, investigate reports of mistreatment of elders and refers parties to community programs that can help resolve the problem. In past years, about 30 percent of allegations were confirmed. That number soared to more than 60 percent in the first quarter of this fiscal year, state figures show.

Like Mitchell, directors of protective services programs in Worcester and Bristol counties said they have been increasingly forced to triage because of the rapidly rising number of abuse and neglect calls.

At Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley, investigators are seeing a spike in financial exploitation cases, where, typically, a family member has drained a senior's life savings. "What I fear," said executive director Rosanne DiStefano, "is that as the economy gets worse, we are going to see more of these cases."

Deborah Fogarty, director of the state's protective services program, said her office is closely monitoring the issue.In several areas, directors of protective services agencies say one of the most critical cuts has been in state-subsidized homecare services, which sends an aide to an elder's residence a couple of hours a week to help with bathing, dressing, grocery shopping, and other chores - providing a much-needed breather for family caregivers.

Nearly $4 million was cut from the homecare program in October. The waiting list is now 675 people."We can do a great job in doing an investigation, identify the underlying cause of abuse, and put together a great plan, and that plan can fall apart or not be as strong as it should be if we don't have those services," said Gregory Giuliano, who directed the state's protective services program from 1997 through 2007. Giuliano, who now runs Montachusett Home Care Corporation in northern Worcester County, said the number of abuse and neglect reports coming in to his agency recently hit a 34-year high.

More baby boomers are opting to care for their frail parents at home instead of placing them in a nursing facility because it is less expensive and is often preferred by the elder. But with that comes an increase in families seeking help from community-based programs, said Leslie Ahern, who runs support groups for family caregivers at Ethos in Boston. Ahern notes that dementia among the elderly is increasingly common, making care even more challenging. She works to defuse potentially volatile situations by teaching caregivers how to manage seemingly "stubborn" behavior. Said Cooper, author of the London study: "Anybody who needs lots of personal care and support is inherently more vulnerable to abuse."

-Adapted from: “ Mass. elder abuse on rise: Economy adds to family stresses; Budget cuts limit options for care” By Kay Lazar, The Boston Globe, February 9, 2009 , http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/09/mass_elder_abuse_on_rise/ retrieved 2/9/09.

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