More than five million Americans were living with
Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, one in
three seniors will die with Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. What
those numbers mean is that, either directly or indirectly, this condition
touches almost every family.
For loved ones, the reality of managing the care
and financial affairs of perhaps an elderly parent or spouse with diminished
mental capacity can be a nightmare, and sadly, tales of exploitation and abuse
are common.
Dr. Sanford Finkel, a
clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical School,
says that unusual behavior can often be an early sign that someone may be
suffering from some form of mental decline or impairment. Finkel specializes in
geriatric psychiatry and has often been used as an expert consultant and
witness in cases of contested wills.
“I had an example of a woman who got up in a
restaurant and started dancing and her husband asked her what she was doing,
and she replied that there was music and she always danced when there was
music,” said Finkel. “That was his first realization that something was wrong.”
For others, signs of a problem could be as simple
as getting lost while driving in a familiar environment or wearing dirty
clothes when they used to be meticulous about their dress.
“As time goes on the symptoms of Alzheimer’s
becomes more obvious,” said Finkel, who notes that this can often cause discord
among families.
“It’s very painful for a family to acknowledge that
their parents are declining and are not behaving as they used to. There’s a
certain amount of denial that takes place in many families and sometimes that
creates tension.”
Barbara Finder leads a wealth management
team for investment bank Morgan Stanley in Chicago, specializing in helping
people close to and in retirement maintain financial independence.
She says that given the cost of care and the burden
it often imposes upon the family, communication and planning ahead is the most
important thing.
“Advance planning is just something I can’t stress
enough,” said Finder. “If we can we do a cash-flow analysis and we are building
into it the increased cost of healthcare. We try to encourage our clients to
save so that whether it’s a healthy retirement or not they have options.”
She notes that 60 percent of family caretakers wind
up using some of their own funds to cover the cost of care.
“The most common financial abuse cases that we see
are caregiver abuse cases,” said Kerry Peck, managing
partner at the law firm Peck Ritchey LLC who specializes in elder law and cases
of financial exploitation. “The typical scenario is an older adult is left
one-on-one with a 24/7 caregiver. You see a lot of women taking advantage of
elderly men in what develops into being an intimate relationship.”
Peck helped rewrite the state’s Elder Abuse and
Neglect Act and has also written the book “Alzheimer’s and the Law,” published
by the American Bar Association.
He says that oftentimes, the caregiver encourages a
vulnerable elder to sign off on things they do not comprehend.
“Whether it’s checks, trust documents or deeds,
anything where one signature does it all and they are off to the races,” said
Peck. “We had a case a few years ago where the caregiver hit an old guy up for
$300,000 and then was on the next plane back to Eastern Europe.”
Under the state’s Elder Abuse and Neglect Act,
anyone who holds a license issued by the state is mandated to report any cases
of suspected elder abuse.
SOURCE: Chicago Tonight, Paul Caine
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