Indiana’s Adult Protective Services is not equipped to handle most cases of financial exploitation, an investigation by IndyStar has found.
Financial exploitation of older adults is disturbingly common: Indiana saw 1,277 cases in 2010 alone, costing a total of $38 million, according to IndyStar. But the state’s Adult Protective Services system is too underfunded and understaffed to address most of those cases.
From IndyStar:
Multiple officials told IndyStar that financial exploitation cases, which are among the most complex and time-consuming to investigate, often sink to the bottom of a priority list when APS investigators are facing allegations of horrific abuse or neglect.
Officials in one APS unit told IndyStar they have open financial exploitation cases that are up to seven years old. The victims are safe, they say, but investigators haven’t had time to pursue criminal charges.
That problem is expected to get worse. The number of financial exploitation cases in Indiana rose 33 percent in the past decade, according to Michael Patterson, executive director of Indiana APS.
“It’s going to be a drain on our resources if we don’t get a handle on it,” he said.
The National Adult Protective Services Association estimates that 1 in 10 victims of financial exploitation ends up on public assistance, such as Medicaid. Research indicates victims also are more likely to be hospitalized and more likely to move into nursing homes.
The national loss by elderly victims of financial exploitation was estimated to be $2.9 billion in 2009, the National Center on Elder Abuse reports.
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