Collins seeks ‘safe havens’ for seniors

WASHINGTON – Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is among a bipartisan group of senators hoping to fight abuses and crimes against the elderly by supporting legislation to better train workers to detect abused senior citizens and require criminal background checks of nursing home aides.

“Thousands of cases of elder abuse go unaddressed every day,” said Sen. John Breaux, D-La., who introduced the bill with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Breaux is the leading Democrat on the Senate Special Committee on Aging, which held a hearing on the measure Tuesday.

The bill grew out of a series of congressional hearings last year when lawmakers heard about repeated cases of abuse against senior citizens.

According to Collins’ office, an estimated 5 million cases of elder abuse, neglect and exploitation occur each year, but many of the incidents go unreported.

Just last week, the president of a business that operated nursing homes in St. Charles, Mo., was fined $1,000 and sentenced to a year in jail for failing to report elderly abuse. The charges stemmed from the beating death of a 78-year-old resident.

In the Philadelphia area, five people were indicted in October on various charges after an 83-year-old retirement home resident was beaten to death. Authorities said the man had an 18-inch bruise on his side, broken ribs, internal bleeding and a collapsed lung.

The bill uses the same approach used to combat child abuse and violence against women, Breaux said.

“Without more attention and more resources, far too many of these cases of abuse, neglect and exploitation will go unaddressed and far too many older Americans will suffer,” said Breaux.

The bill would create new programs to assist victims and establish grants to better educate and train law enforcement and prosecutors about elder abuse. It also would establish offices within the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to deal with elder abuse issues.

Daniel Pulliam of States News Service contributed to this report.

In addition, the Elder Justice Act would create five “Centers of Excellence” that would function as “safe havens” for seniors. While the centers are still in the conceptual phase, they would work to prevent elder abuse by providing information to those who face the possibility of abuse.

The Justice and HHS departments would determine where the safe havens would be located.

A spokesperson for Collins said Tuesday the senator hopes to see one of the five pilot centers established in Maine where the percentage of elderly residents is above the national average and projected to increase. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 14.4 percent of Mainers are above the age of 65, while the national average is 12.4 percent.

Also included in the legislation: increased security at long-term care centers; mandatory reports to law enforcement of crimes toward residents; national criminal background checks for employees at federally funded providers; a 60-day notice of nursing facilities closures and assured relocation for all residents.

During the Senate committee hearing Tuesday, Collins, a member of the panel, said the comments of senior citizens across the country are troubling and that even if a person plans appropriately for old age, he or she still runs the risk of being scammed.

“It is my hope that this bill will make it possible to curb this increasingly pervasive problem,” Collins said. “Our bill unites the social service, health and law enforcement communities in analyzing the problem of elder abuse.”

Daniel Pulliam of States News Service contributed to this report.