Question

2. You are preparing a seminar entitled “How to recognize and prevent financial exploitation from occurring to your elder family members.” Discuss warning signs that could alert family members one family member is acting unethically and unlawfully with their elder’s assets.

Answer 1

Financial exploitation of the elderly is a true humiliating situation to the victim, and mostly the culprits will be the blood relative or family member or a close acquaintance. The physical or psychological illness or unwell state of the client will be exploited in most cases. As the client will not be in a state to identify the exploitation or not able to respond to it, the exploiters find it as an opportunity to loot the client. It is also called financial abuse.

Warning signs of financial abuse on elderly:

Health care practitioners dealing with the elderly people care, have an important role to prevent financial exploitation of the elderly client. They usually compile evidence from their past experiences, anecdotal evidence and some shared beliefs and caution the banks, lawyers and the friends and neighbors to prevent the exploitation from occurring. Usually the bankers, family members, officials doing registration of deeds, neighbors etc are the first people to notify a financial exploitation on the client, when the client isn’t able to identify it by himself.

There are many indicators that can be observed directly, by visiting the family of the elderly person.

• Missing of valuables and belongings are one of the clear evidence of exploitation.
• Lack of documentation of financial transactions and deals. The elderly person’s assets like pension, stock investments, bill payments etc are not documented properly, means some exploitation is happening or the client is at risk of financial exploitation.
• Elderly person’s lack of awareness or confusion about recent money deal or transactions and vague description of the client or care giver about the financial status, is a clear indicator of some financial abuse.
• Unpaid or overdue bills, expulsion of foreclosure notices, discontinued of utilities in spite of sufficient resources, also propose a financial abuse.
• Some of the visible features like, poor grooming of the client, substandard or absence of proper care, scarcity of clothing, food, or other basic needs, when the person can afford them, suggest financial abuse.
• Direct complaints from elderly person on sudden disappearance of funds, or valuables is a clear indication of financial abuse.
• Lack of proper treatment of physical or psychological illness of the client indicate financial abuse. Serious psychological well being, memory loss etc put the client on risk of financial exploitation.
• Family members addicted to substance abuse may also cause risk of financial exploitation to the elderly client.
• The health care worker must keep an eye on the family members or care givers who questions on the financial expenditure of the client only without allowing client to speak.
• Any unusual change in the banking routines, any unexpected expenditure, unexpected transactions, withdrawals, or the client’s complete unawareness of the financial status must be considered seriously.
• Suspicious changes in signatures on cheque, bills and documents, inclusion of additional names on client’s bank cards etc has to be checked.
• A very important indicator is the social isolation of the elderly client. The client is denied contact from friends and neighbors must be checked carefully for financial exploitation.