PD Editorial: A shameful rise in elder abuse cases

In our May 24 editorial (“Caring for county’s aging population”), we offered support to an ambitious county initiative that seeks to raise the quality of life for seniors in Sonoma County to enviable heights.

But we noted that success for the Aging Together Sonoma County initiative wouldn’t come easy given the many challenges facing local seniors, including poverty, isolation, high housing costs and limited transportation options.

There’s one other obstacle that’s a growing problem in Sonoma County, one that has a corrosive effect on the security of seniors and their willingness to accept assistance. That is elder abuse.

As the county Human Services Department reported this month, the number of elder abuse cases reported in Sonoma County has increased 70 percent in the past five years and now stands at more than 4,400 a year. Roughly half of these cases were in Santa Rosa alone.

It’s a disgraceful problem, made even more shameful by the fact that studies show only one in every 23 cases of elder abuse or neglect is actually reported to authorities.

Local examples of abuse are all too easy to locate in our coverage.

In March, a 25-year-old Petaluma man was arrested on suspicion of beating his elderly roommate, who suffered significant facial injuries and was taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment.

In Feburary, a 43-year-old Healdsburg woman, who had been convicted in 2010 of forging checks to steal $6,500 from an elderly man in her care, was arrested for violating the terms of her probation. She was working for an adult care facility under an assumed name.

Two years ago, former Santa Rosa investment adviser Gary T. Armitage was sentenced to 10 years for orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme that bilked some 2,000 investors, many of them seniors, out of $200 million in savings to support his extravagant lifestyle.

And these do not include the many stories of seniors who have been conned out of money by telemarketers and email scammers who use deceit or fear tactics to coerce seniors into sending them money or acquiring their credit card information. One that still ranks among the top 10 scams, according to the National Council on Aging, is the “fake accident ploy,” where con artists persuade their victims that they are or are calling on behalf of a family member who is hurt or in trouble in another state or country and needs financial assistance.

One in four abuse cases in Sonoma County involves some form of financial abuse, while another 25 percent involve some form of psychological, physical or sexual abuse.

In recognition of World Elder Abuse Awareness Month, many activities are planned including the placing of small purple flags on the lawns of senior centers of each city indicating how many abuse cases have been reported in that community. (To report a case of elder abuse, call 565-5940 or 800-667-0404. For more information, go to www.socoelderprotect.org.)

Pearl Buck once observed that society “must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.”

The number of purple flags on display next month should show it’s a test that, at least for the moment, we’re failing.