Legislation should help prevent elderly abuse

ALBANY — According to AARP, 65.5 percent of Georgia’s citizens will be part of the state’s aging population by 2030. Thus, people are looking at ways to improve long-term care and prevent elder abuse.

Gov. Nathan Deal signed two bills in May to help protect senior citizens from abuse, neglect and exploitation. Organizations such as the SOWEGA Council on Aging provide resources and programs for seniors in the surrounding counties. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services maintains an online database of ratings for nursing homes in the state.

While there is no singular legal definition for elder abuse, Evan Jones, a personal injury attorney at Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley P.C, said he is of the opinion that “it’s at least where the elderly person’s rights are infringed upon and their dignity is affected by whatever care and treatment — or lack thereof — they’re receiving.”

Jones said that elder abuse can manifest in different ways. It can take place in a nursing home, an assisted living facility or one’s own home with a designated health care provider.

“(Elder abuse) can be exploitation of the older person’s financial funds,” Jones said. “It can be abuse as you and I think about it, where an elderly person is attacked by a care provider or even (by) another resident. It can be malnutrition in a nursing home; it can be dehydration. It can be a fall in an assisted living (facility).”

Polypharmacy, he went on to say, is another example of abuse wherein a caretaker puts elderly residents on too many medications to restrain them or to curb their behavior.

Elder abuse is an issue that is more widespread than most people are aware. The National Council on Aging says that an estimated 5 million, or one in 10, older Americans are victims of elder abuse, neglect or exploitation each year.

“Experts believe that for every case of elder abuse or neglect, as many as 23.5 cases go unreported,” Jones said, referencing an Augusta Chronicle article in which Georgia Burea of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan noted that more than 3,000 people in Georgia had been charged with crimes against the elderly since 2010.

To help address and prevent elder abuse, Deal signed into law Senate Bill 406 and House Bill 803. SB 406 requires direct care employees of nursing homes, personal care homes, assisted living communities, private home care providers and adult day care centers to comply with FBI background checks and fingerprinting. HB 803 prohibits both the trafficking of older or disabled persons and the practice of shuffling clients to various facilities to avoid detection by law enforcement.

If a family is looking for a long-term care facility, the Medicare website has a Nursing Home Compare tool that rates every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the country. The website bases its ratings on various quality of care indicators such as health inspections, staffing and quality measures. The family can also pull up details regarding penalties a nursing home has sustained.

If a relative is already in a long-term care facility, the Division of Aging Services website has provided a list of warning signs for certain types of abuse. Indicators of physical abuse include rough handling, injuries not consistent with medical diagnosis or explanation, and forcing someone to remain in a bed, chair or room.

Indicators of financial abuse include missing money or valuables, checks/documents being signed when the person cannot write and unpaid bills when someone else is supposed to be paying for them for the person. Signs of neglect include bed sores or rashes, malnourishment and a lack of appropriate clothing for the weather.

There are many resources available for those who wish to report instances of elder abuse. The Department of Community Health for the state of Georgia accepts both complaints filed online and over the phone. The form can be found at https://dch.georgia.gov/webform/file-complaint. The complaint intake phone number is 1-800-878-6442.

“One of the things they’re required to do is investigate any and all complaints that happen to a loved one in a nursing home and all elder abuse complaints,” Jones said.

The nursing home database can be found at https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html.