For boomers, elder abuse is a growing problem. Answers may come from 4 Wisconsin communities

Green Bay Press-Gazette

STURGEON BAY - When ads pop up to spread awareness of abuse, they typically depict young people struggling in abusive romantic relationships, or a child hiding from a harmful parent.

They rarely show wrinkled hands holding an empty wallet.

Elder abuse is a "grossly under-reported" type of mistreatment, according to Anni Lampert, a domestic violence advocate with HELP of Door County. The National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life calls it a "hidden, yet growing, problem."

Scrapes and bruises are noticeable, but like abuse in general, more indicators often lie beneath the surface — older people may face emotional, psychological or financial abuse.

Detecting, and ideally stopping, instances of elder abuse requires a coordinated effort. Cases are not just handled by domestic violence advocates or governmental bodies, but by many different departments.

In Door County, social service workers, law enforcement, financial advisers and other community members are learning to combine forces to stop elder abuse, with help from a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Door County and three other regions, ranging from rural to urban, received grants to help Wisconsin develop ways to build these connections, with the hope that what they learn can be adopted statewide.

The grant recognizes that many people make contact with older people who may abused. In order to know someone needs help, and what support to offer, requires collaboration and communication between many people.

Wisconsin DOJ Communications Director Gillian Drummond said what the department learns from each pilot community "will be important for future policy decisions."

'We don't like to believe domestic violence happens among older adults'

Why was Door County selected? It has the oldest population, per capita, in Wisconsin. It's also a small, rural county, two factors that have been known to limit access to elder abuse resources in similar areas across the state.

More than 37% of Door County residents were ages 60 and up, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 American Community Survey. Statewide, 22% of all Wisconsinites fall in that age group.

Kim Kramer, a Door County Adult Protective Services social worker, said most of the referrals that come to her office report self-neglect, which means older people are struggling to take care of themselves.

The Wisconsin Incident Tracking System, which collected data for Door County adults age 60 and over, recorded 226 complete reports of elder abuse in 2018. Self-neglect cases made up 196 cases, or 86.7%.

Self-neglect is a quiet, yet common, type of elder abuse — and one that is not considered a crime. That could be why elder abuse is under-reported and infrequently discussed.

"It's about shame," said Carol Lenius, another social worker with the county's adult protective services group. "Our elders are still of the 'we take care of our own' kind of mentalities."

Lampert added she often hears those who visit HELP say: "I'm the one who helps other people, I don't get help."

Sometimes, service providers have to walk away from suspected self-neglect situations. Competent older adults choose their own care paths, and sometimes do not want help at all. In addition, Lenius said, people often shy away when they hear "social worker" and might fear government intervention.

"Adult protective services has a negative connotation," Lenius said.

"(The narrative is) we just throw people in nursing homes, but we want to keep people at home," Kramer added.

Isolation and limited access to resources contribute to self-neglect, which might be why it's common in a rural, spread-out community like Door County.

Ann Laatsch, the justice system coordinator for the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life, said the risk of abuse is greater in isolated areas. Nationwide, one in 10 community-residing adults — those who reside outside nursing homes or care centers — reported experiencing elder abuse in the last year, across various forms of abuse. She also said only one in 24 cases across the country are brought to law enforcement or adult protective services.

Sometimes elder abuse is chalked up to self-neglect when, in reality, a caregiver is not doing their job. Nationwide, elder abuse is commonly committed by people in a trusted relationship with the victim, according to Laatsch.

"We don't like to believe domestic violence happens among older adults," Laatsch said. "An older adult may be reluctant to report it because they want to be safe, but don't want their spouse to go to jail ... (or they) rely on their abuser for housing or care."

Unreliable caretakers, such as the recently-sentenced Margaret S. Meyers, can do a lot of damage. The Fond du Lac woman was sentenced in July to eight months in jail and three years probation for taking more than $300,000 from a 97-year-old woman she tended to.

Meyers, 54, used handwritten notes from the woman to withdraw large sums from her credit union account twice a week. Meyers took out up to $750 at a time, which concerned a credit union employee who later reported Meyers to Fond du Lac County Aging and Disability Resource Department.

Social workers from that department reported suspicions about Meyers to police in October 2017.

Other cases making headlines this year included that of Athens' John Niemann, who was sentenced just a month before Meyers for sexually assaulting a woman with Alzheimer's in a Rothschild nursing home in central Wisconsin, and a high-profile case in California regarding, Keya Morgan, the former business manager of Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' creative leader, who was charged with five counts of elder abuse — including stealing from Lee, who died in November 2018.

Frequently, its not until after people die that abuse is discovered, Laatsch said.

She said it can be difficult for older adults than at-risk women or children to find places to escape from dangerous situations.

Some shelters across the U.S. do reserve rooms or wings for older victims, including the Older Abused Women's Program at the Milwaukee Women's Center — one of the longest-running older victim support groups in the country.

Training focuses on growing elderly population

The U.S. Department of Justice has identified elder abuse as an issue that will become more prevalent as baby boomers age.

That concern led to creation of the Abuse in Later Life Grant Program, administered by the Office on Violence Against Women.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice received the three-year grant in October 2018 and divided it among four recipients — Outagamie and Door Counties, the city of Milwaukee and the Oneida Nation.

"The four counties selected represent diverse populations in urban, rural, and tribal communities," Drummond said in an email.

The main goal of the grant is building a coordinated community response to elder abuse in each area. Grant program staff train law enforcement, government employees and people who work with older adults on what red flags indicate elder abuse and how to respond.

The key to coordinated community responses? Communication.

Trainees learned details about the various people who touch elder's lives and started to build networks of resources and who to call when elder abuse is suspected.

Self-neglect, the most common form of elder abuse, is not illegal and law enforcement has less involvement than departments like Adult Protective Services, so collaboration is essential.

But Laatsch emphasized self-neglect can often disguise other abuse, including violence.

"The biggest thing we talk about in our (training) ... is that forms of abuse often co-occur," Laatsch said. "If you find someone who's being neglected, odds are very high that there is some (other type of abuse) going on as well."

Lenius and Lampert, as well as their fellow staff members and local law enforcement, participated in training sessions focused on expanding victim services and making systemic changes to address the elder abuse issue. A quarter of the grant money went directly to victim services in the sub-grantee's communities.

Door County Sheriff's Office Investigator Chris Neuville is on the Door County team, along with District Attorney Colleen Nordin, Sturgeon Bay Police Department Sergeant of Police Jason Albertson, Lenius, Lampert and Wisconsin DOJ Program Coordinator Sarah Oneil, who oversees the grant program in Door and Outagamie Counties.

Police recognize the issue is largely under-reported, Neuville said. That's why the team is focused on raising awareness — so people will notice signs of abuse and report it.

"In the last one or two years, awareness really has gone up," Neuville said. "It's being looked at appropriately. I think we're doing the right thing."

The training follows the same guidelines in each area, and the idea is that the lessons learned by the pilot communities' can be duplicated by other Wisconsin counties, municipalities and tribes.

That's why the four areas were chosen — they represent the various populations found in the state, according to Oneil.

"Whatever we are able to do in each of these pilot communities, we can build on that in each and every community that takes this on," Oneil said.

Contact Sammy Gibbons at (920) 431-8396 or sgibbons@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @sammykgibbons or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ReporterSammyGibbons/.

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