Baby Boomers to Cause Explosion in Senior Services – Is Government Prepared?

The Civil Grand Jury for the County of Los Angeles recently completed its final report for 2008-09. The nearly 500-page report revealed the results of a year’s worth of investigations focused primarily on children and the elderly. Over 100 pages of the report revealed an approaching “senior tsunami,” referring to the tidal wave of people approaching their senior years, and the ability of elder abuse prevention programs and services to meet the needs.

Adult Protective Services (APS) in Los Angeles County receives around 2,000 new referrals each month. The eye-opening grand jury report found that APS suffers from a lack of coordination and oversight among the many agencies and programs under its authority. According to the Grand Jury, APS does not even know if its efforts are helping seniors, due to a combination of weak oversight of county agencies and lack of a good system to track data and analyze staff performance and program outcomes.

It may also be astonishing to learn that there are no specific legal requirements for APS social worker training. While APS does indeed have a training curriculum for its social workers, it has no way of knowing how many agencies are actually conducting the training or how many social workers have in fact completed the training that is available.

Another distressing finding is the lack of resources focused on prevention of abuse. Only a couple of county medical facilities currently have a preventive program in place for the population of seniors most at-risk. Most APS services in fact go toward cases where abuse has already occurred.

Finally, the report found that the county does not have any plan in place to seek additional funding or expand its services to meet the growing elder population, which is expected to more than double from 1 million seniors in 2000 to 2.2 million by 2030.

The senior population is growing at a time when state budgets are shrinking, placing an ever-increasing demand public funds. Proper management and oversight of nursing homes and other facilities will continue to pose a challenge to cash-strapped agencies, increasing the likelihood that abuse or neglect may occur and go unnoticed. If you suspect that you or a loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, contact The Law Offices of James R. Gillen to schedule a confidential consultation and for immediate assistance.