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elder abuse, a time when silence is never golden

Story and photo by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

Economic times are tough. Everybody knows that, given what’s happened to retirement plans and savings.

The Illinois Department on Aging is watching closely and monitoring numbers of reported cases of abuse of Illinois’ elders. No statistical data has shown more elders abused since the economic meltdown, but elder abuse is generally under reported, Tracy Barczewski said.

Barczewski is Midland Area Agency on Aging Elder Abuse coordinator in Centralia, one of the state’s offices on elders.

“There is concern that elder abuse will increase, and financial exploitation is the highest rate of abuse,” she said. “We just don’t know.”

What Barczewski and other case workers do know is that a parent’s natural instinct is to reach out to their children, offer them shelter if they need it, and to offer financial assistance when times are tough.

“We’re looking at the possibility of more combined households,” Barczewski said, “because when kids lose jobs, they go home, and the parents welcome them.”

Multi-generational families living together and pooling their resources are not abusive.

“That’s not exploitation,” she said. “The key is pooling resources, not draining the resources of an older adult.”
Statistics point to children and other relatives as the primary abusers of elders. The abuse may take the form of verbal threats: “I won’t let you see your grandchildren unless you give me money.”

In another case, a relative may go to visit, and later the elder realizes a checkbook is missing. Then checks that the elder did not write are being cashed at the bank.

In still other instances, someone may take an older person to the bank and have them withdraw money and give it to that person, Barczewski said.

How do people know who abusers are? They seldom do.

“We do have people with abuse problems (that we recognize), but others look just like us,” Barczewski said.
She has heard many reasons younger people take advantage of their elders. Some say: “It’s my money; I’m going to inherit it; I just want it early.”

Barczewski hastens to point out: “It’s not their money; it’s for the care of that person.”
People in their 80s seem to be more susceptible to abuse, she said. Those folks become more frail, maybe their mind slips a little, and they can become targets of abuse.

How do people like Barczewski find out about abuse? Other family members might call them, a friend, a neighbor, a hospital care worker, or a bank employee if it is financial abuse are just a few of the people who report suspected abuse.

If family members are involved, as they often are, the older person might not want to press charges.
“They don’t want the community to know” about what goes on in their family, she said.

Of the 65 cases of elder abuse reported to the Midland office, Barczewski said about 60 percent are substantiated.
The office offers its services, but the older person can decline. “Sometimes our presence stops the abuse,” she said, “but we have to do what the victim wants.”

Noting that all calls are confidential, she said if the call is about physical or sexual abuse or confinement issues or serious neglect, they respond within 24 hours.

Less serious calls have a 72-hour to seven-day window in which to respond.
On a personal level, Barczewski said: “Having lost my parents, I can’t believe people don’t treasure their relatives instead of taking advantage of them. We sometimes see people literally drain an elder’s life savings.”

However, Barczewski said sometimes the relative expects to pay the money back to the elder, “but it just gets away from them. The best case scenario with financial abuse is to stop it for the future.”
The Midland office in Centralia covers five counties in south central Illinois.

To report suspected cases of elder abuse, neglect or exploitation, please call 1-866-800-1409.
For more information about services throughout the state go to www.stat.il.us/aging.