Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Page 7
AFFAIRS OF STATE (Column)
Sacramentans Respond to Campaign Against Elder Abuse
By DAVID KLINE
How you interpret Sacramento’s elder abuse reporting statistics may depend on whether you are an optimist or a pessimist.
The optimistic view is that this area leads the state in calling the California attorney general’s elder abuse hotline because residents here are more educated about abuse and more likely to report it.
The less rosy view, of course, is that the capital might just have more incidents of abuse to report.
Since the attorney general’s hotline was unveiled April 30, 2003, there have been roughly 3,000 calls statewide, and 300 of those originated in Sacramento County.
Peggy Osborn, who manages the “Face It—It’s a Crime” anti-abuse campaign for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said the figures show that this area is ahead of the state when it comes to recognizing abuse and doing something to stop it.
“This is a very slow educational process, and the fact that Sacramento had had a previous media campaign shows in the numbers,” Osborn said.
That earlier campaign was put on by AARP a few years ago as part of a lobbying blitz to persuade lawmakers to crack down on elder abuse. Signs and broadcast ads were placed everywhere in Sacramento, so the politicians meeting in the Capitol would be sure to absorb them.
The legislation that authorized the “Face It” campaign is a byproduct of that lobbying. The effort, now in its second year, is slated to run through the end of 2005.
Osborn said the first year focused primarily on developing creative materials—including striking ads that have won local advertising awards—and paid advertising that reached 37 of California’s 58 counties.
Year two is focusing on “reaching out to the communities, helping educate seniors and caregivers and dependent adults on what to look for and how to prevent abuse,” Osborn said.
That mission includes participation in annual events like Sacramento’s KCTC Senior Spectacular earlier this year, and the convening of special community forums with participation from law enforcement groups and seniors’ advocates.
The first forum was held in Santa Cruz in February. Another will be held April 20 in Butte County (from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Paradise), with a Fresno event slated for May 26 and a Ventura County forum in the works for June.
One goal is to get Californians used to thinking about the ways in which many seniors are abused—physically, financially, mentally, verbally and sexually—and to focus attention on preventing this mistreatment.
Another more immediate goal is to increase the number of calls to the statewide elder abuse hotline (1-888-436-3600), so prosecutors can go to work and put offenders behind bars.
“You don’t have to know abuse is occurring, all you have to do is suspect that something may be occurring,” Osborn said. “If you suspect something, pick up the phone and make the call.”
One study found that 84 percent of elder abuse goes unreported, often because family members are the abusers and the victims are afraid to speak out.
“It’s a crime,” Osborn said. “It’s not a family matter, it’s a crime, and it needs to be reported. We don’t need to be intrusive, but we need to be watchful.”
In Sacramento, at least, this message seems to be getting through.
— Capitol News Service
Copyright 2004, Metropolitan News Company