THE AGING OF AMERICA - ARTICLE ONE

The Aging of America

Title: The Introduction

Article One

My wife, Carol, and I have agreed to write an occasional column for the DAILY NEWS SUN newspaper to help protect the 78 million Baby Boomers who are retiring over the next twenty years.  We are abused seniors who have learned about fighting Elder Abuse and Senior Fraud from personal experience for nearly four years. We have been presenting classes of elder abuse prevention for nearly one year in order to protect the seniors from what happened to us to happening to them. We are certified Elder Abuse Prevention speakers by the Ageless Alliance and the National Center on Elder Abuse. I have just been recognized as an Honored Lifetime Member of the Covington Who’s Who for my efforts to protect seniors from Elder Abuse and Senior Financial Exploitation. We have had one of our 15 senior protection laws passed this year in the Arizona Legislature. We are also working directly with the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging to develop procedures for the Elder Justice Act which was recently passed.

Elder Abuse has been called the “Silent Crime” because it receives so little media attention and because so many seniors do not report that they have been abused.  It is estimated that only 4% of all physical elder abuse crimes are reported yearly. A recent study by the National Protective Service Association reports that 10% of America’s 57 million seniors are abused every year. That equals 5.7 million seniors who are physically abused every year. Elder Abuse victims are three times more likely to die in one year than non-abused seniors. One senior is abused every five seconds in the United States.

Senior Financial Exploitation has been called the “Crime of the 21^st Century” because of the growth and extent of this heinous criminal activity which depletes the assets of seniors. A recent MetLife Study reported that $2.9 billion is stolen from seniors yearly. It is estimated that only 2.2% of senior financial exploitation crimes are reported every year. This means if all of the senior financial exploitation crimes were reported, the yearly senior losses would exceed $130 billion. It is estimated that 20% of America’s 57 million seniors have been financially exploited. That equals 11.4 million seniors who have had their assets stolen.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently released a study stating that the average senior who has become a victim of financial exploitation loses $140,500.00.

The goal of our column, which we are calling “THE AGING OF AMERICA,” is to share our senior protection class information and better protect seniors from abuse and financial exploitation.  We recognize the prosecution of these crimes is not the answer to preventing elder abuse and senior fraud, but it is Prevention. The best way to stop these elder abuse crimes is with “Knowledge” on how to protect yourself from becoming a victim.

Elder Abuse reported crimes has grown 12% in the past two years in the United States. However, it is an epidemic in Arizona because the Arizona Department of Aging and Adult Services has stated that Elder Abuse reported crimes have grown 43% in the past two years. The Arizona Adult Protective Services reports that they receive over 900 vulnerable and elderly adult complaints filed monthly.

We believe the Public needs to know the scope of this problem and why this information is so important for your protection. Due to our declining health problems, public speaking has become very difficult so the best method to get this information to the seniors is through the newspapers. We commend the DAILY NEWS SUN newspaper’s interest and willingness to address these issues. We believe every older American has the right to live free from abuse and financial exploitation.

Note: The next column will be about the need to do background checks on caregivers because 20% of caregivers are felons. This is the new emphasis of Arizona AARP this year. AARP has the goal of getting a Caregiver Background Check State Law passed which would better protect Arizona Seniors.

MARK AND CAROL FAIRALL