Cheryl Lee: NYC Department for the Aging Advises on Signs and Rights for Elder Abuse Victims

Fern Gillespie
Not all older adults are able to age gracefully with their families. In New York State, it’s estimated that 300,000 older New Yorkers over age 60 are experiencing elder abuse each year. Most times from family members. In recognition of June’s World Elder Abuse Awareness Month, Our Time Press reached out to a leading expert in elder abuse Cheryl Lee (MSW), Elder Abuse Coordinator at the NYC Department for the Aging (DFTA) in the Elderly Crime Victims Resource Center, for insights.

OTP: In dealing with elder abuse, what are the signs that people should look out for?
CL: In cases of elder abuse, a lot of times it’s the family members who are actually the abusers. So, the majority of the referrals we get are actually from a third party, a neighbor, a friend, or relatives who are reporting that they believe their family member is being abused by another family member. By their child, their grandchild, and like that.

There are signs and symptoms of physical abuse that would be the most obvious. You would see bruises, maybe broken glasses. They’re acting differently. There’s psychological abuse. The person may be getting yelled and screamed at every day. Now, the person now may appear to someone else as being more quiet, more subdued around the person because they’re afraid to speak.

OTP: What are the major forms of elder abuse?
CL: Physical, psychological, neglect, financial and sexual. The sexual was actually our lowest form as far as prevalence. The most prevalent is financial right now. But, even if you’re financially exploited, that’s going to have a psychological impact. You want to address the cycle.

OTP: How are older adults experiencing financial abuse?
CL: In deed fraud cases, where you own your home all of these years, now of a sudden your child or siblings or someone else asks you to put their name on the deed or your bank account. Now they’ve either taken out a mortgage on the home or they’ve withdrawn the money out of the account.

Because people don’t realize once you put someone’s name on your account, despite you putting all the money in, they now have access to it. So, they can rightfully go to the bank and take it all out.

There’s smaller cases where if the only thing you have is your EBT card. But, now someone’s taking your EBT card and they’ve gone out and bought food that you can’t eat because you’re diabetic. They bought a bunch of sweets. Now, what are you going to eat because they they’re using your card?

OTP: How is the problem handled if the abuser gives the older adult a financial crisis?
CL: A lot of times people say, ohh, I just want my money back, but I don’t want the other person to go to jail. Or I don’t want the person to be arrested, I just want my money back. But unfortunately, it’s hard to do that. A lot of times the funds are just lost if you don’t want to pursue criminal charges against someone.

So you have to work with them and just try to make them safe in the home, still with the abuser, but try to put things in a place that make them a little more safer. Like maybe put a lock on the bedroom door. Maybe put give them an alarm button that they could push if they feel threatened and it’ll alert the police.

Maybe arranging for NYPD to come by for wellness checks. But in the case of deed fraud, we have some providers who have legal services. They will help them get the deed back in their name. If you’re having financial exploitation by a power of attorney, they could help the person get the power of attorney revoked so the other person no longer has access to their funds. They could help set up a more reliable power of attorney.

OTP: What impact does the psychological abuse have on older adults?
CL: Imagine if you’re getting emotionally abused every day. You’re getting screamed at every day and being belittled. It has a huge psychological impact so that’s why we offer in conjunction a program where you could go for 10 weeks of counseling regarding depression.

We offer mental health services and a social worker is working with intervention. You have to work with them and just try to make them safe in the home, still with the abuser.

OTP: The New York Police Department (NYPD) has a special program for older adults. How does this operate?
CL: In every precinct they have what we call an older adult liaison. They’re part of the Community Affairs Group Division and NYPD. The older adult may have walked into a precinct. It doesn’t just have to be about abuse. It could be about anything. You know, they’re complaining about the neighbor or they want to know something about what’s going on in the community.

They have a specific officer in each precinct or public service area to assist. They also go out into the community and they provide trainings on scams to look out for. The elder abuse cases are actually handled by the domestic violence officers in the precinct. Once they see an older adult, they will make the referrals to the community provider for them to provide follow-up services. Maybe they need counseling or Meals on Wheels or some other additional services just to address the needs of the older adult.

OTP: What was it like being a speaker at the New York City announcement on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day held at Gracie Mansion?
CL: It was a wonderful event. It was very rewarding to see the providers being honored because this is it’s a tough job to go out and investigate cases of elder abuse. It was also more rewarding to see the actual clients who came for the event. They were willing to stand up and say, yes, this is going on with me.

And, I’m doing something about it. So that was just marvelous, because the more people that speak out about it, the more people that won’t be ashamed to come forward because of the elder abuse. There’s a lot of shame and guilt involved. You’re thinking of a family member who’s doing it.

Little wanting to admit their son, daughter or their grandchild is abusing them. But, the more people that speak out, the more it’s likely to destigmatize it.

OTP: If an older adult feels that they are being exploited with elder abuse, what can they do?
CL: Call us at Aging Connect. Here at NYC Department for the Aging, we actually have providers in the community who go out and investigate the cases and do the legwork. First, they do an assessment to find out what’s going on.

How long it’s been going on and what other services may be needed for the person to help alleviate or diminish what’s going on.