Elder abuse - physical, emotional, and even financial - is an emerging crime that remains veiled in secrecy. Hidden cameras have captured assaults against senior citizens in Canadian and American nursing homes
But there's a shocking reality: most cases of elder abuse occur in their own homes, and the perpetrators are usually relatives.
"Karen" cannot be identified because her aunt, the suspect in her grandmother's case, has never been charged.
Karen's grandmother was terrified at the thought of being forced to move into a nursing home. So Karen's aunt pledged to come take care of her.
It wasn't long though before Karen and her family noticed the arrangement wasn't working.
"The residence became messier and messier," she said. "There was a gradual taking over of the entire house, my grandmother's own bedroom.
"I raised heck because I realized that she was sleeping on the sofa."
Worse news lay ahead. In the weeks and days before her grandmother died, Karen discovered serious health issues she claims were the result of neglect. Toenails so long that they curved and dug into the side her feet, preventing her from walking properly. A large, untreated wound on her leg that became infected.
Karen and her family also uncovered financial abuse once her grandmother died.
"The accounts had been drained," Karen said. "There wasn't even enough money for her funeral."
Some family members had tried to intervene, but Karen's grandmother didn't want help; too afraid, she says, to speak, out against her own daughter.
Ottawa police have noticed an increase in elder abuse, said Det. Christina Wolf, one of two investigators assigned to the beat.
"We see situations where a 'caregiver' enters a person's life with this understanding that they will do just that, provide care and the basic essential needs to the senior," Wolf said.
"They're in it for the money, and over the course of time the money takes priority, and the senior gets neglected. Sometimes to the point where they are severely emaciated and dehydrated and left alone."
The Ottawa police elder abuse section investigated 468 cases from its 2005 inception until early 2008. Thirty-three of the cases involved home support workers, 81 occurred at private institutions, 98 were at long term care facilities, and 256 cases involved alleged abuse by family members.
In total, 57 people were arrested and 623 charges were laid. Greed was the common factor in most cases, according to police, whether it's Grandma's nest egg, Mom's savings, or a potential inheritance.
"Whatever way one wants to rationalize it, it's criminal," Wolf said.
The Ontario Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse has released a series of public service announcements to raise awareness and encourage people to report wrongdoing.
"I know that with the aging population and in my work I'm seeing it increase on a monthly basis," said Manon Thompson on the ONPEA.
"If there is financial abuse, there is most likely psychological and physical abuse. They kind of go hand in hand."
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Natalie Pierosara
