Fourteen years ago, Paul Greenwood had never even heard about the problem of elder abuse. Today, his mission is to bring its perpetrators to justice.
Greenwood, a deputy district attorney in San Diego, brought his passion for prosecuting elder abuse crimes to the Albemarle Tuesday, serving as guest speaker at the World Elder Abuse Awareness meeting in Currituck County.
Greenwood warned area social workers, law enforcement, medical staff, care givers and others about the graphic photographs he would be showing them during the course of the event.
"I don't apologize for them because that is what is happening out there," said Greenwood, who has tried 200 felony cases for elder abuse and dependent adult abuse. "This is what is happening in our community and we can't hide from that."
Greenwood flashed a picture of the bruised and battered face of Sandy, a 76-year-old victim. Sandy had innocently permitted a vacuum salesman into her home and ended up buying a $2,300 vacuum she didn't need.
The exploitation did not stop there, however. Later the salesman returned and asked to use her phone. Once inside, the man beat Sandy, tied her head to foot with duct tape and threw her into the back of her own car. After 26 harrowing hours in the trunk, Sandy was rescued by an observant deputy sheriff who thought her Dodge Magnum looked out of place in the neighborhood he was patrolling.
Sandy is one of many older adults who are abused in a variety of ways, Greenwood said. Incidents often go unreported --victims often are either too afraid or embarrassed, too weak or vulnerable to speak out -- but that is beginning to change.
"We are about where child abuse ... was 30 years ago," he said.
The problem of elder abuse is likely to grow as a larger share of the population gets older, Greenwood said. The older population is expected to peak between 2010 and 2030 when "baby boomers" reach age 65. According to the National Center for Elder Abuse, older people will comprise 20 percent of the population by 2030, almost twice their number in 2007.
Another speaker at the event, Jay Burrus, director of the Dare County Department of Social Services, said the number of elder abuse incidents in Dare has risen 500 percent over the past few years. The trend is alarming because of Dare's rapidly increasing population of residents 60 and older, he said.
Protecting seniors from predators intent on stealing their money was one concern recently addressed by Dare's Elder Abuse Collaborative. The collaborative met with area bankers to discuss financial exploitation of elders with good results, Burrus said.
"Bankers saw it as a problem and didn't know how to handle it, and I think they were glad to know there were ways to handle it," he said.
During a conference break, Barbara Courtney, Currituck representative on the Albemarle Commission, said Currituck also could benefit from making banks aware of how to prevent financial exploitation of seniors.
Courtney said she came to the event, held at the Cooperative Extension Center in Barco, to learn more about elder abuse and how to apply the information in the county. An online nursing instructor for East Carolina University, Courtney said more people need to feel responsible for reporting incidents of elder abuse.
"If we had more eyes looking at all these problems, then we could make a difference," she said.
The 10-county event was designed to heighten awareness about issues involving elderly care, said Debra Sheard, regional ombudsman for the Albemarle Commission's Area Agency on Aging, which sponsored the event. Sheard said she had hoped more care givers, who work daily with the elderly, would have attended the session. Care givers need to understand that they are obligated to report what they see, she said.
At the beginning of the session, Greenwood flashed a picture of the Currituck Lighthouse on the screen, and said it was a symbol of what the event was trying to accomplish. The lighthouse is a beacon for those in need, and it also signals a warning about pending disaster, he said. Years ago, elder abuse was basically unheard of, but today more cases are being reported and the perpetrators are being punished.
"Once you place an importance on this subject and you shed light on it, it attracts attention," he said.
This year alone, Greenwood's office has prosecuted 270 cases on felony elder abuse, he said.
For too long, the problem has remained basically unnoticed, partly because the victims are reluctant or unable to report the abuse.
"There is a lot of silence in the community about elder abuse," Greenwood said.
Victims may be especially reluctant to report a problem if the abuser is a family member.
"It's a crime in North Carolina, but it is sadly going unpunished in some cases," he said.
Greenwood, who speaks widely about elder abuse protection, aims to bring more cases to trial. His plan is to protect "the greatest generation," those who like his parents survived World War II.
Society should be judged by how well it protects the defenseless, he said. And so he intends to keep on working, even to the age of 71, so that as a senior citizen he can prosecute those who abuse senior citizens.
(By CINDY BEAMON
Staff Writer
