Santa Rosa senior’s terrifying experience sheds light on pattern of elder abuse
In 2018, Betty Racicot got a call from a distant cousin who had helped care for Racicot’s ailing mother in the final weeks of her life. The cousin needed a place to stay, and so did her adult son.
Racicot invited them into the cozy Santa Rosa house she had owned for 20 years.
The visitors arrived in a rented car and with no money, and over the course of the next 18 months or so, they turned Racicot’s life into a living hell.
They took over her property and, after gaining access to her financial accounts, filled the space with things they had bought with her money. The son, prone to angry outbursts and conspiracy theories, berated Racicot and unsuccessfully tried to have her declared mentally unsound.
Racicot and her small dog, Honey, have the house to themselves again these days. But she is nowhere close to resolving the financial and emotional wreckage of those months.
“I couldn’t believe somebody would treat another person that way when I was only trying to help him,” Racicot, 82, said recently.
But Donata Mikulik isn’t shocked by the story. As Sonoma County’s elder justice coordinator, she has a bird’s-eye view of the devastation so frequently visited upon accepting, generous older Americans.
“Something like 90% of elder abuse takes place in a trusted relationship,” Mikulik said. “Maybe I take someone into my home, then they fix things around house. The next thing, they’re asking for money. Or it can be something romantic: ‘Oh, I want to marry this person and buy them a car.’ Often it comes from that trusted relationship, and it comes from isolation.”
Wednesday is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and Mikulik and other advocates of older adults want people to know there are resources to help the aged avoid abusive predicaments, and to bring relief when it happens. But even those most involved in the safety net acknowledge its gaps.
“Solutions can be really challenging,” Mikulik said. “I’m not saying there’s nothing you can do, so just forget about it. It’s more like, ‘This is a challenge, what can we do about it?’”
It may be more of a problem here than most places. Residents over the age of 65 make up about 10.7% of the population statewide; in Sonoma County, it’s more like 20.4%. And as Mikulik noted, “Folks here often have property or other assets that can be a place for people to steal from, or for grandkids to take advantage.”
Sonoma County recorded 6,479 reports of elder abuse in 2021, Mikulik said. Only a few hundred resulted in police reports, and the district attorney’s office became involved in far fewer than that. Of course, those are only the documented cases.
There are resources, though. The county’s Adult and Aging Division, part of Health and Human Services, is a gateway for elders seeking information and assistance. The division’s full scope includes Adult Protective Services, the primary intervention team in cases of neglect and abuse; the Area Agency on Aging, which offers things like Meals on Wheels; and specialized services for veterans and those needing in-home supportive care.
The Family Justice Center of Sonoma County includes elder abuse awareness among its family violence prevention programs. And Mikulik’s Elder Justice Initiative, which coordinates among the various public offices, is part of Senior Advocacy Services, a watchdog agency that focuses on long-term elder care facilities.
It sounds like a formidable shield for vulnerable older people, but Betty Racicot ultimately felt abandoned.
“I tried to get the police to help me, the sheriff, the mayor. Nobody would tell me anything,” she said.
Unfortunately, much of the burden can fall on older residents themselves, and some of them don’t have the resources or know-how to navigate this complex system.
“The persistence it can take to get justice, that’s a difficult process,” Mikulik said. “It’s exhausting. And re-victimizing.”
The majority of calls that come to the Adult and Aging Division, about 55%, are cases of self-abuse, according to director Paul Dunaway. But among the 45% that involve harm or neglect by others, the largest category — 15% of all calls to the division — show a pattern similar to Racicot’s.
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