Elder Abuse Addressed

Elder Abuse Addressed

Throughout the state of West Virginia this summer, more than 40 members of seven Elder Abuse councils are examining how our senior citizens are victimized by everyone from family members to perpetrators from other countries.

Too often, our elders are transformed into prey, and the Attorney General’s Office is developing communication methods with Mountain State citizens.

Right at Home owner April Wintermoyer is a member of the North-Central Elder Abuse Council, and I am one of eight members on the Northern Panhandle Elder Abuse Council. April met with her group a few weeks ago to develop ideas about communicating with the Morgantown area, and last week, I sat down with Amy Lee-Nickerson, an employee of the Attorney General’s Office, as well as Ann Koegler with Altenheim Resource and Referral Services and Claudia Raymer with the Ohio County Family Resource Network.

Along with Amy, our telephone conference was guided by Anthony Martin, the Charleston-based Chief Deputy of the Attorney General’s Office, and his number one goal was determining the most dangerous threats in each region of the state of West Virginia. Goal #2 involves the distribution of the prevention information, and as the technology era continues some seniors are not online, do not own smartphones, and still depend on radio, television, and the print media for the majority of their information.

The internet, after all, did not go mainstream until the late 1990s, and the iPhone is only 11 years old.

“It seems as if a portion of the Baby Boomer Generation has been left behind, as far as technology is concerned,” Nickerson confirmed. “And very often, the rest of us have been dependent on that technology for everything from our news to the scam warnings that are released by our law enforcement agencies, so we’ve become dependent on those devices.

“What our office is trying to develop are ways to reach those residents as well as everyone else so we can spread awareness about the risks that are, unfortunately, out there,” she explained. “Consumer fraud is something the Attorney General’s Office pays a lot of attention to and these councils of citizens are helping us with those ideas so we can broaden our level of protection for our residents.”

As far as radio in the Upper Ohio Valley is concerned, I am an on-air journalist each weekday from 2-6 p.m. on AM 1600 WKKX and AM 1370 WVLY – “The Watchdog Network” – and I address this issue each and every time a scam is reported by local law enforcement, and it is a common topic when April visits the studio for a segment on the show. Our stations also are news partners with WTRF TV7 in Wheeling, so we work together on several levels.

The area also has five local, daily newspapers with publications in Steubenville, Weirton, Martins Ferry, and two in Wheeling, and each media outlet remains today dedicated to covering their respective communities. That is why I am confident we can gain their assistance with the dissemination of facts related to elder scams so we can reach those still dependent on turning those newsprint pages.

“We are very lucky in the northern panhandle region because our media outlets have a long history of cooperation with the Attorney General’s Office when it comes to protecting the people in this area,” Nickerson reported. “With the average age of our residents here in West Virginia, we are seeing more and more attempts to abuse our senior citizens so our goals are to pave paths so new information can reach our citizens as soon as possible.

“It’s constant because there are just so many different ways our elders can be abused,” she added. “There are just so many scams out there these days. It’s sad.”

There’s the “Grandson in Jail” scam, the “Gutter Repair” scam, and the “Yard Care” scam, to cite only a few, and another factor in the Wheeling area is the fact the majority of sons and daughters during the last three decades were forced to move away to find living-wage employment. North Carolina and South Carolina have been popular destinations, and so have the Columbus and Pittsburgh areas, but remaining here in the Upper Ohio Valley was very low on the list and an option for very few.

In other words, the majority of mothers and fathers remain and sit vulnerable to predators seeking to take advantage, but in some cases, however, older family members are being taken advantage of by younger members of the same family.

“We have seen cases like that, yes,” Nickerson confirmed. “Elder abuse is elder abuse, though, so we treat those cases the same as the rest of them.”

While there is not a fixed schedule of meetings for the state’s seven elder abuse councils, additional gatherings will take place in the near future so the development of the information pipelines can begin to flow warnings and scam specifics to all people of West Virginia. Once printed information is produced by the AG’s Office, not only will distribution take place but members of the councils will pay visits to retirement communities to explain the risks and the way to avoid future abuse.

“We can put it out there and hope that our older citizens take the time to read it and understand the information, but if we go to them and speak directly to them, we believe it will prevent much more of the abuse because our citizens will have a better understanding about how these criminals operate these scams,” Nickerson added. “That way, if a citizen has a question, we can be there face-to-face to supply the answers they need in order to deflect the dangers of elder abuse.”

Elder Abuse Resources:

National Center on Elder Abuse
Adult Protective Services
West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services
Adult Abuse Hotline: (800) 222-8000