J.B. VAN HOLLEN
ATTORNEY GENERAL

Protecting The Elderly

A caregiver enters an elderly patient’s room.  Undetected, she swipes the patient’s credit card and sneaks upstairs to call her utility company and pay off hundreds of dollars of arrearages with her newfound plastic.  She keeps the card and uses it to buy gas and cigarettes.  Stealing money’s not enough.  Later, she’ll take the patient’s identity, too, opening up another credit card in the patient’s name.

A nurse makes a mark in the checklist hanging next to the patient’s bed.  Demerol administered.  The nurse then pulls down his own shirt to cover any evidence of the injection.  He really should clean up his office, he thinks, and throw out those used syringes and that bloody towel.  The patient in front of him groans, praying for pain relief, hoping for sleep.

“Please, don’t hit me again.  Someone help me!” cries an elderly resident who was grabbed and shoved to the ground by a care worker.  “She just lost her balance,” explained the care worker, failing to explain the painful swelling in the victim’s arm.

“I was overwhelmed,” a wound care nurse told investigators looking into the death of a patient whose multiple bedsores were left untreated for almost a month.  The wound care nurse admits the neglected patient was her most critical patient with bedsores.

The terrifying examples above beg the question: Who’s watching the people watching your loved ones?

The elderly, others needing care, and their families place great trust in care providers.  Usually, that trust is well-placed.  Caring for the elderly and others in assisted living facilities is much more than a paycheck to many health care workers.  It is a calling, one driven by deep compassion and inspired by human kindness.

But care providers as a class are not immune from human weakness.  Greed.  Addiction. Stress.  Anger.  Too often, these things take over.  And those most vulnerable to victimization are those who depend on others for their care.

The elderly entrusting their care – their lives – to others are too often the victims of crimes such as fraud, identity theft, pharmaceutical diversion, and abuse and neglect.  The effect of this victimization ranges from the loss of dignity to the denial of care, from financial loss to loss of life.

The stories above are based on cases prosecuted by my office since I became Attorney General two years ago.  At the Wisconsin Department of Justice, we have an entire unit of lawyers and investigators dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of cases involving elder financial and physical abuse.  I have long believed that the state should play a robust role in protecting those who are our most vulnerable.  We must ensure that our senior citizens are provided the legal protections they have earned.

With the aging of the baby boom population and increasing life expectancy, the potential for elder abuse will grow.  Hospice, home care and community-based facilities provide many new options to those who might otherwise find themselves in a traditional nursing home setting, options that can provide excellent service and care.  Just as with traditional nursing homes, however, all carry with them elder abuse risk factors that must be monitored.

And we are doing that at the Department of Justice.  One of my first acts as Attorney General was to expand our ability at the Department of Justice to fight elder financial and physical abuse.  Our enforcement activities involve cases like the terrible stories I’ve told above.  They also involve cases where state funds have been diverted by contractors more interested in lining their own pockets than replacing the linens.  Benefitting the taxpayers, the recovery of these diverted funds more than pays for our unit’s enforcement efforts. 

Of course, its not about the money.  It’s about protecting people in need of protection the most. 

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