Focus put on elder abuse
Crimes against the elderly in Shelby County have increased in recent years, and this baffling trend only promises to get more pronounced as Baby Boomers age.
And Memphis' Plough Foundation and the Shelby County district attorney general's office have intensified their efforts to highlight the trend, provide information and step up enforcement.
Since Jan. 1, the Vulnerable Adult Protective Investigative Team, or VAPIT, a special investigative unit at the Shelby County district attorney's office, has been on the front lines in a battle to deal with elder abuse The unit, mandated by state legislation passed last year, requires a multi-disciplinary response team that is led by each county's district attorney to investigate reports of abuse of the elderly and disabled.
That's a good thing because prosecution of the perpetrators must be swift and unfailing. And, with financial abuse now rivaling the obvious physical abuse of the elderly, the enforcement of such crimes takes on added importance.
"It's not as if our office has never prosecuted elder-abuse claims," said Shelby District Attorney General Amy Weirich. "What is comforting to prosecutors is that the victims now have more support and someone to lean on."
Weirich and Plough officials, led by Executive Director Rick Masson, met with The CA's editorial board last Thursday.
Two years ago Plough committed $3.4 million over three years to fund elderabuse programs as part of its Coordinated Response to Elder Abuse, or CREA. It was a sizable commitment for Plough, representing 10 percent of its annual grant-making. All elder issues have accounted for up to 40 percent of grantmaking the last two years. The goal has been to engage advocates, law enforcement and the community in an effort to stamp out the abuse.
"Our plan was not created in a vacuum and the community helped shape the plan," Masson said.
Since the VAPIT program started Jan. 1, it has reviewed 500 cases that led to four arrests for elder abuse. While there is no comparable set of cases in previous years, Weirich said she would be "shocked if we had 500 for all of last year."
Weirich and Masson also noted that nine of 10 cases of elderly abuse are financial cases. Weirich said one of the goals of VAPIT is to get people out of the environment where they are being abused and into a better situation.And a vast majority of elderly-abuse cases happen in a victim's home, often at the hands of a family member.
Given the coming "silver tsunami" washing over the nation -- 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day -- and an aging Shelby County population, this coordinated team's work will be critical over the next decade.