Elder Abuse Case Study

effectively identifying caregiver risk factors, reducing the burden of caregiving, and promoting prevention strategies that protect our seniors.
Incidents of Elderly Abuse. Approximately 1 in 10 Americans aged 60 years and older have experienced some form of elder abuse. Some estimates range as high as 5 million elders are abused each year and only 1 in 14 cases of abuse are reported to authorities (Schmitt). Financial exploitation is the most prevalent and fastest-growing form of elderly abuse, followed by neglect, emotional mistreatment, physical abuse, and lastly, sexual mistreatment (Acierno). “Family members are the most common perpetrators of financial exploitation (57.9%), followed by friends and neighbors (16.9%), and home …show more content…
In this well-documented case study, a judge appointed a non-family member, live-in companion, legal guardianship of an elderly parent suffering from dementia, diabetes and other health issues, unbeknownst to the elder’s daughter. When the daughter traveled across the country to take her father to live with her, the court-appointed legal guardian denied access to the elderly parent. The daughter immediately called the police who told her the only recourse was to obtain legal guardianship. The daughter also discovered $195,000 had been transferred from her father’s savings to the guardian’s personal bank account. Two years later and close to $100,000 dollars in legal fees, the daughter was awarded legal guardianship and the live-in guardian was convicted of felony exploitation. The elderly father died the following year. His $480,000 retirement savings had dwindled to about $60,000. Even more disturbing is the courts allowed the live-in guardian to remain in the elder’s home during the 2-year court battle, exercising full guardianship rights, even after she was indicted …show more content…
The Government Accountability Office has identified hundreds of cases of negligence, as well as physical and financial abuse. All 50 states, a judge who rules an elderly person is cognitively impaired can appoint a guardian to oversee the elder’s well-being. The guardian is legally authorized to manage the elder’s estate, exercise full legal and medical power of attorney, choose which friends and relatives have access to the elder, and even sell the elder’s home and move him or her into a nursing home. The National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit think tank, estimates guardians across the country supervise 1.3 million adults and $50 billion dollars of their assets (Garland). Determining how much is lost each year is difficult to assess because financial exploitation is the least reported form of elder abuse, but its estimated losses run in the tens of millions

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Elder Abuse Instrument: A Case Study