Abuse Lasts Past Mother's Day

Mother's Day is over for another year, but there's a hidden problem with many of our mothers that just goes on and on. Take the case of Ruth, an 89-year-old woman who was in fairly good health when she entered an Iowa nursing home for physical therapy in 2008. When she left to go home 25 days later, Ruth's leg was rotting and consumed by gangrene. She died three months later. State and federal officials rightly called it neglect, and fined the nursing home $112,650.

The nursing home owner is of course contesting the ruling. He runs a lobbying organization and is complaining about the fine to Iowa legislators, accusing the inspections department of "flogging" nursing homes and blocking seniors' access to care by imposing huge fines.

Ruth's case, highlighted in the Elder Abuse: A Women's Issuehttp://www.owl-national.org/Welcome_files/OWL_MothersDay_Report_09_Final.pdf, the annual Mother's Day report being released today on Capitol Hill from Older Women's League (OWL), is by no means an isolated one. Domestic and institutional elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation cause serious harm to anywhere from 500,000 to 5 million individuals in the United States every year. Females make up approximately 66% of the victims. That means up to 3 million older women are battered, beaten, swindled, or neglected by relatives and so-called caregivers.

It's a problem that has been recognized since at least the 1980s. But twenty-five years of congressional hearings on its devastating effects have produced no federal law to address the problem in a comprehensive manner, even though elder-battering has been called both a disgrace and a "burgeoning national scandal." Despite continued efforts, one by Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, the Elder Abuse Prevention Act of 2006 and the Elder Justice Act of 2008 failed to pass under GOP control of Congress.

Even without legislation, one would think our national institutions might be addressing the issue. Not so. Adult Protective Services, the front line responder to elder abuse under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, does not have a federal office, federal standards, oversight, training, data collection or reliable funding. What's worse, there is not a single federal employee working full-time on elder abuse in America.

In late March, the Elder Justice Act was introduced as S. 795 again by Senators Hatch and Lincoln (D-AR). In addition, Senator Kohl (D-WI) reintroduced his Patient Safety Act as S. 631. Both bills await action in the Senate Finance Committee. Meanwhile on the House side, its version of the Elder Justice Act was introduced by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) as H.R. 2006 in mid-April.

Overall prospects for final action on the Elder Justice Act are promising due to the Obama Administration's expected support. Let's hope so. Otherwise, the states will continue to craft a hodge-podge of laws and regulations, meaning the safety of elderly women is subject to geography and the lobbying power of corporate nursing homes.

OWL's report documents the need for comprehensive elder abuse prevention laws -- using the models of prevention for violence against women and child abuse. It's about time. It's about our mothers.

Comments

[NASGAAdvocate]

Adult Protective Services IS the problem in many cases. Systemic elder abuse, abuse perpetrated by judges, attorneys, state/federal agencies and others in the system for personal/p­rofessiona­l gain, is never included in elder abuse reports. My mother ended up in a nursing home because of this abuse, and almost met the same fate as Ruth. I was able to sneak her out of the nursing home for treatment so gangrene claimed "only" a toe. Adult Protective Services covered up this incident (it was substantiated by the Dept of Health) and booted me out of the nursing home at the request of the director. Illegal action was taken, resulting in a court order that kept me from taking my mother to any doctor again. Sound fantastic, couldn't happen in the USA? It DOES happen, and the judge in my case is currently under investigation.

[ElaineRenoire]

Here’s a shocking form of elder abuse the legal world refers to as "the dirty little legal secret”:
unlawful and abusive guardianship.

Guardianship wards are stripped of all rights: the right to decide where to live and whom to associate with, how to spend (or save!) one's own money, accept or refuse medical treatment - or even ask for a second opinion, vote, marry, etc.

Most important, guardianship wards are stripped of the right to complain.

With the fox guarding the henhouse and the hens muzzled, guardians and their attorneys can easily unjustly enrich themselves at the expense and detriment of the very person they have been court-appointed to "protect".

And what do victims do? Many go to the AG only to be turned away because the abuse has been court-sanctioned.

Visit NASGA at www.StopGuardianAbuse.org and the NASGA blog at http://NASGA-StopGuardianAbuse.blogspot.com for more information.

Forewarned is forearmed!
Yours,
Elaine Renoire
NASGA