According to friends and family, at age 75 Rosemary Pagett was a "sweet little grandmother." She spent the final 30 years of her uneventful life in a peaceful country village near Wakefield, England. Then one day her world turned upside down. She was sexually molested in her own house and a few days later, so traumatized she could not speak, she died.

Who in this world would do such a thing?

Police suspected a group of teenage boys who were going around the neighborhood knocking on people's doors and running away. It seemed dubious, but as it turned out they had the "boy" part right. Rosemary's assailant was her 12-year-old grandson. He pleaded guilty and was, according to press reports, "remanded into the care of the local authority."

This is just one egregious example of arguably the world fastest growing crime-elder abuse. Approximately 500,000 instances of elder abuse were reported just in the United States in 2007; research shows many if not a majority of such cases are not reported because elders are frequently too embarrassed or disoriented to do so. As our population ages, the numbers will continue to rise.

Crimes against elders, of course, aren't just about rape and other forms of violence. Often, it's about money. Take the example of Robert Pyle, who was recently profiled in the New York Times. At age 73, he was a widowed, retired aerospace engineer living in a Northern California house worth about $650,000. He had another $500,000 in the bank, and his mortgage payments were very manageable as the house was nearly paid for.

By age 83, Pyle found himself living in a spare room in his stepdaughter's small, mountainside home. He's now totally broke.

Like many lonely elders with money, he met an amicable younger person (a woman) who befriended him and started to borrow small amounts of money from him, then bigger amounts, and so on until the money was all gone. Mr. Pyle took out a second mortgage to keep giving her money, and eventually he sold his home to an unscrupulous buyer for about $100,000 less than it was worth.

Then there's the case of the caregiver in Pittsburg, New York, who was charged after police say she forced an elderly woman to kneel on hot pavement and wear a diaper in public. I could go on.

But what can we do about this?

For one thing, we can be on the lookout for victims of elder abuse, and we can report suspicious activities to the police. Another thing we can do is urge our U.S. congressional representatives to support the Elder Justice Act. The purpose of this bill, which has broad bipartisan support, is to "raise the issue of elder abuse to the national level as well as provide a comprehensive approach to preventing and combating elder abuse, neglect, exploitation, and self-neglect." You can read about this bill and its many features at elderjustice.com.

Written by Senator John Breaux (D-Louisiana) and initially sponsored by Senator Warren Hatch (R-Utah) and Senator Max Baucas (D-Montana), the Elder Justice Act would have effortlessly passed through the 2007 Congress if it hadn't been blocked from consideration at the last possible moment, due to the objections of one or more unidentified senators.

The unidentified senators were acting on behalf of the Bush administration, which for reasons not stated opposes this legislation. It can't be the money, because the bill is by Washington-standards minimally funded, under $50 million. So, what's the problem?

This makes me mad as hell.

EMAIL PRINT

posted at 06:43:41 PM