NEW YORK—Help from others for essential daily tasks, such as grocery shopping or paying bills, is required for many elderly people who can no longer do things on their own. When caregivers—frequently family members—take advantage of the elderly’s trust, it becomes elder abuse, and it can cause victims to feel confusion, melancholy, and self-doubt.
“I’m too smart for that, I wouldn’t let that happen to me.” That’s what many elderly persons think, says Ken Onaitis, licensed master social worker and director of elder abuse and police relations at Carter Burden Center for the Aging.
Cases of elder abuse, especially because they often involve different generations of family members living together, are difficult to resolve.
“The person who is taking advantage of them may be living with them,” says Onaitis. “We quite often have family members who are taking the money—they’re there, they need a place to live. At the same they’re providing help to the older adult, so it’s not a clear-cut criminal justice issue, where you arrest a person and everything goes away.”
In fact, the number of elder abuse cases differ greatly from cases reported, according to a 2011 statewide study titled “Under the Radar: New York State Elder Abuse Prevalence Study,” conducted by a group including researchers from the Weill Cornell Medical Center.
