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Corporation For Aging Marks World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

By Kim Glovas

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Today is the 7th annual World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The Philadelphia Corporation for Aging is marking the day by putting the issue of elder financial abuse at the forefront.

PCA put together the Philadelphia Financial Exploitation Prevention Taskforce to help prevent, detect and prosecute those who take advantage of the elderly.  The panel has found that self neglect of the elderly is the number one problem. But number two with a bullet is financial exploitation.

"The person used to go to the bank and take out twenty dollars," says Carlotta Bulls is an expert on the subject with the PCA's Older Adults Protective Services. "And now they're taking out a hundred dollars a week or a hundred dollars every other day, that's a pattern change. So that's something that I want to look at more closely. Go back to the senior and say did you do this? Or did you allow this to happen? Why did you allow this to happen."

The taskforce has found that most financial abuse takes place by someone the senior trusts. The majority of them are female family members between the ages of 30-and 59.

Elder abuse can be reported by calling the PCA Helpline at 215-765-9040.

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