When Elder Abuse Hits Home

When Elder Abuse Hits Home
[Some authorities fail to prosecute.]

By Jeannie Jennings Beidler, Next Avenue Contributor

Saturday, June 15, is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, so this is an ideal time to acknowledge the roughly 2.1 million older Americans who are victims of abuse, neglect or exploitation each year; an estimated 84% of those cases go unreported. Here is one woman’s story about how her grandparents were scammed and mistreated by a member of their own family.

In October 2005, the police were dispatched to my grandparents’ home, 100 miles from where I lived, following a dispute between my parents and my uncle. My grandparents’ unemployed adult son was living there and had become infuriated when my parents had traveled there to make an unscheduled visit.

They attempted to leave and, as my uncle tried to keep my grandmother inside, several glass panes of a door were broken, cutting her and my mother. My parents called the police.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2013/06/13/when-elder-abuse-hits-home/