Elder care abuse is growing

Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, W.Va.: As we all know, advances in medicine have meant dramatic changes in aging in the United States.

First of all, there is a lot more of it.

The average life expectancy now is almost 80 years, up from about 70 four decades ago. The 85-and-older category is the fastest growing age group in the country, and today we have more than 2 million people who are 90 or more.

That longevity is a wonderful thing, but it creates new challenges for retirement funding and a host of other issues. One of those is elder care and the potential for abuse and neglect among this growing population.

We see some of the extreme cases in local headlines, including cases where caregivers have robbed or exploited elderly people for drugs or money or employees at elder care facilities have taken advantage of their clients.

The National Center on Elder Abuse has done some studies to round up statistics on such cases, and the reports increased by 20 percent between 2000 and 2006. However, the organization notes that reporting is spotty because there is really no one clearinghouse for information about these types of incidents.

Veteran movie star Mickey Rooney, now 91, went before Congress last spring to bring attention to the issue, citing his own experiences of being cut off from the world by caregivers and being exploited financially.

Experts urge family, friends and professionals to be alert for not only signs of physical abuse or neglect, but also for behavioral changes or unusual financial activity such as gifts, loans or will changes.