case histories of elder abuse and neglect（老人虐待和忽视的历史）.pdfVIP

CASE HISTORIES OF ELDER ABUSE AND NEGLECT The following are actual case histories of suspected elder abuse or neglect that were investigated by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, law enforcement authorities, or both. Names, dates, and locations are omitted to preserve client confidentiality. These cases might provoke discussion about who could have intervened, when, and how, to protect victims more effectively. You might also discuss cases of possible elder abuse or neglect. Financial Exploitation When seniors are dependent on others for help, it’s easy for the people they trust most to take advantage of them. Financial exploitation is the illegal or improper use of an elder’s funds or resources. As with other types of elder abuse, the perpetrator is often a relative or acquaintance. But it may also be someone entirely unknown to the victim, such as a con artist who offers to perform home repairs or makes some other phony claim to extract money. In one case described here, local bank staff recognized something was amiss with an elderly customer’s account. Together, the Cabinet’s adult protective services staff and police investigated. In the second case, a trusted member of the victim’s community won her trust, then plundered her finances. The third case fits a common pattern of door-to-door scams directed at the elderly. Case 1 A local bank alerted county police of possible exploitation of an elderly client. His savings account had gone from a balance of $96,000 to zero in six months. The elderly man insisted to police that he had willingly given the money to a young man who lived with him. He denied that the young man had committed any wrongdoing and refused to press charges. Further investigation by police revealed that the young man had forged checks for $24,000. Police asked the Cabinet to assess the elderly man’s physical and mental state. Police accompanied a state social worker and nurse consultant to the home,