Illustration by Sean McCabe

Summary:
• The recession has hit older Americans hard.
• They need to recoup losses quickly.
• They're desperate—maybe too desperate.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris tells a story that feels all too familiar to her.

An 86-year-old woman opens her mail to find a solicitation for a reverse mortgage on her home. She calls the number listed and is connected to a salesman who assures her he can help her use the equity in her home to get the money she needs. The salesman helps her get a $140,000 loan. He then persuades her to allow him to invest the money for her.

That money, however, goes no further than the perpetrator’s own wallet, Harris says. The suspect is later charged with residential burglary, grand theft and grand theft from an elder. If convicted, he could face up to eight years in prison and be required to repay the victim. In the meantime, though, the woman is stuck with a reverse mortgage she did not need and has lost money she spent a lifetime accumulating in an economy that makes recouping her nest egg unlikely.

The reason this story is uncomfortably familiar to Harris is because it concerns a crime that she finds herself prosecuting more and more in all its forms—financial, physical and verbal—at the hands of family members and strangers alike. The numbers show a spike in elder abuse nationwide, and experts say it’s driven by the economic stress of gutted investments, lost jobs, slashed salaries and foreclosed homes.

“We saw the first wave with the subprime loan crisis,” Harris says. “Now, more and more of these people are in a very desperate state. This causes them to be very vulnerable to predators. When victims have been beaten up by their circumstance, they’re willing to accept help in whatever form.”

The numbers are disturbing. In Florida, the state with the second-highest 65-plus population, reports of elder abuse have increased 13 percent in the last two years, according to the state’s Adult Protective Services. In Texas, the number is up 8 percent over the same period, reports that state’s Adult Protective Services. The jump comes after the most recent nationwide analysis of elder abuse estimated that reported cases increased 30 percent from 1997 to 2007. And because this crime is notoriously underreported, no statistic comes close to telling the whole story.

Easy prey

In any economic climate, older Americans are tempting targets for abuse—particularly financial abuse, which accounts for an estimated annual loss of $2.6 billion, according to a MetLife Mature Market Institute study published in March. Shaped by their experiences in the Great Depression and World War II, members of the “greatest generation” tend to be more trusting because “they had to trust in each other a good deal to survive,” says Pamela Teaster, president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse. What’s more, half of that age group is experiencing problems with cognition. “That raises the potential for abuse by getting people to sign documents that they do not understand,” says Lisa Nerenberg, author of Elder Abuse Prevention: Emerging Trends and Promising Strategies.

Unfortunately, the perpetrator is most often a family member. If an older person owns a home, a relative who holds power of attorney might cash out the equity or change the name on the deed, leaving the owner dispossessed, financially powerless or evicted altogether, according to Denis Culley, staff attorney at Legal Services for the Elderly in Augusta, Maine.

But family members aren’t always involved. Con artists fine-tune their methods during times of crisis. Think of the scams that surfaced after Hurricane Katrina and 9/11. “The scammers will get more brazen as they know people are feeling more and more desperate,” says Ellen Kolodney, elder abuse coordinator at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office in New York.

Hard times can also lead to increased risk to personal safety of older people. If those who once paid for an older relative’s care now take on more of the day-to-day tasks themselves because they’ve lost money or jobs, physical abuse can occur, says Marsha Frankel, clinical director of Senior Services at Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Waltham, Mass.: “They are around their elderly relatives more … and tensions can escalate when a person with dementia has asked the same question for the 50th time.”

Poverty also makes self-neglect a bigger concern, and these days poverty is widespread. In California, for example, half of all residents over age 65 and living alone don’t have enough money to cover their housing, food, health care and other basic expenses, according to a UCLA Center for Health Policy Research study in February. Fearful of being forced into a long-term care facility, residents often deprive themselves rather than ask for help, according to elder abuse expert Brian Payne, chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at Georgia State University, Atlanta.

What can be done?

Each state has its own elder abuse laws, so definitions of abuse and prosecution for such acts vary across the country. State adult protective service programs, which handle elder abuse, are severely underfunded, a problem exacerbated by recession-era cuts in state budgets. This year, Arizona laid off 800 social service workers and, as a result, no longer investigates all elder abuse complaints.

Passing the federal Elder Jusice Act tops advocates’ lists of what must be done to combat this problem. The act would provide $400 million in federal funding for state adult protective service programs. It would orchestrate the coordination of federal, state, local and private activities related to elder abuse and would provide grants to improve staffing at long-term care facilities. The bill has bounced around Congress for a few years and was reintroduced in both houses in April. Advocates believe it might gain traction now that Democrats control both houses and because Rahm Emanuel, a sponsor of the Elder Abuse Act when he was a member of the House, is President Obama’s chief of staff.

On another front, AARP is urging state legislatures to enact the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, something only five states have done. The law requires documents to contain a clear statement of who has authority to sign for an older person and strict requirements for handling so-called hot powers, such as altering an estate plan. A third party would be able to contest the power if they believed elder abuse had occurred.

District Attorney Kamala Harris isn’t waiting to take on elder abuse in San Francisco. She’s started a three-part initiative to combat mortgage and financial fraud against older Americans. Harris has made a legislative push for a dedicated mortgage fraud statute. The new San Francisco Elder Abuse Forensic Center will expedite evidence collection and investigations. And a public campaign is delivering information on abuse to churches and community centers.

Protecting against elder abuse is complicated for many reasons, not the least of which is that the accused is often someone the victim knows and loves. No amount of resources may be enough. As Pamela Teaster says, “Look at the Brooke Astor case, a case of a very wealthy person, and you wonder—how in the world could that happen to somebody who is so wealthy?”

Cynthia Ramnarace writes about families and health from Rockaway Beach, N.Y.