PART 2: The Pikes Peak Elder Abuse Coalition has been working to keep vulnerable adults safe for 15 years and that work continues during COVID19 times. Dayton Romero, Chair of the Coalition and Director of Senior Assistance Programs with Silver Key, discusses the extenuating circumstances and challenges being faced during COVID19. Fraud abounds with specific COVID scams and abuse is heightened as people lack support and have more stressors. Learn how the Coalition is meeting the needs.
Aging with Altitude is recorded in the Pikes Peak region with a focus on topics of aging interest across the country. We talk about both the everyday and novel needs and approaches to age with altitude whether you’re in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida or Leadville, Colorado. The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is the producer. Learn more at Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging.
Transcript:
You’re listening to Studio 809. This is what community sounds like.
Cynthia Margiotta:
This is Aging with Altitude. Welcome to all. Brought to you by the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Area Agency on Aging. We strive to provide answers assistance and advocacy to our elders. Please know that our guest today and I are sitting about 10 feet apart and we are practicing the social distance protocol, and I hope you are too. We are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and one of the issues is elder abuse and how it’s increasing. My guest today is Dayton Romero. He works for Silver Key, has been there since 2015. He’s responsible for overseeing the administration and operations of several programs there at Silver Key. These programs include case management, guardianship, behavioral health, food pantry, and commodity food programs. and the Silver Key’s different lines of services. We have been talking about abuse in the home, also called mistreatment. There are several kinds that people deal with and so we are going to continue that discussion here. My name is Cynthia Margiotta. I’m a geriatric social worker and a volunteer with the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Area Agency on Aging, so let’s get started with our next question. When there’s financial exploitation, in particular, it’s done by an insider. That’s someone they know. A family member, relative, a loved one, a caregiver, someone. With the loss of income for many people, are families turning to their parents now for money?
Dayton Romero:
We have yet to anecdotally hear about those situations. I can say regardless of COVID, we see that too often already where there is a codependence among an adult child or another who’s actually living in the home with that senior who owns the home really kind of depending on that person too…
Cynthia Margiotta:
Support them.
Dayton Romero:
Support them. Yep, and you know it also could be, again, the codependence as well. We’ve seen it kind of one sided. One person moving in and really relying on the support of that person all the way to the point where an individual really reaches that level where they need a higher level of support. And I mean that in care support. Whether it be in need of assisted living or skilled nursing, we’ve seen kind of challenge decision making where people, if mom moves to a nursing home, what does that mean for me? And so it really compromises the health and safety of mom. Those are difficult situations to see, hear of, and be in for a lot of people. It’s prevalent. It happens, especially whenever we are talking about low-income families. With that, I think it’s important for adult children or the caregivers, relatives, whoever is in those homes and are in that position of financially exploiting. A lot of times there is self-justification in financial exploitation especially in those in-home arrangements of I’m going to the grocery store. I’m picking up all of...
