Saving the Elderly From Mistreatment

By Athan Bezaitis on November 9, 2009 3:13 PM

The Los Angeles Caregiver Resource Center and the Andrus Center Volunteers hosted a seminar on preventing the mistreatment of older persons at the USC Davis School of Gerontology on Nov. 4.

Filmmakers Dorothy Breininger and Debby Bitticks and former Los Angeles Police Department detective Chayo Reyes provided information on such forms of elder abuse as predatory caregivers, financial scam artists and neglectful nursing homes to students, faculty and other visitors.

From 1987 to 1999, Reyes, a former member of the Elder Person’s Estate Unit, prevented the loss of or recovered more than $91 million in victim’s assets, which included homes, vehicles and life savings. He discussed ways to recognize and address theft from the estates of vulnerable adults.

“Elder abuse cases have a common theme,” he said. “The victims generally live alone, may be in poor health and, in 95 percent of cases, suffer from dementia or are subject to undue influence or duress.”

Suspects, he said, who can sometimes be family members and friends, often isolate the victim in order to obtain control of their lives, creating a “civil mirage.”

“Perpetrators coerce victims into signing a power of attorney, contracts, quitclaim deeds, wills, living trusts, adding their names onto the victim’s bank accounts and opening credit cards under the victim’s name,” Reyes said. “They will even go so far as to marry the vulnerable elder as a means of controlling their estate through ‘community property.’ ”

To expose some of the other pitfalls that older persons face and to highlight real-life scams used against them, Breininger and Bitticks screened the 2007 National Mature Media Award-winning documentary Saving Our Parents.

Hosted by actor Ed Asner, the film featured Reyes, former Los Angeles chief of police William Bratton and TV personality Art Linkletter, who discussed issues such as nursing home neglect, unscrupulous conservators, senior scams and offered motivational advice.

Shawn Herz, director of program development of the Caregiver Center, said the film and discussion provided “vital information for raising awareness of what people need to take into consideration when planning for care and in protecting the vulnerable.”

For more information on Saving Our Parents, visit www.savingourparents.com

TAGS: aging, community programs

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