One of the most inescapable facts of life is the law. This is often a good thing since lawlessness is usually a pretty bad scene. But it means that, if you have a legal issue and aren’t fortunate enough to have the right kind of lawyer on retainer, you need a representative or a counselor to help you navigate the warrens and mazes of our system.
For the whole month of October, San Francisco’s City Hall will be washed in purple lights. Many people will wonder why. Our hope is that by the end of the month, everyone will know why and feel the resulting unity throughout the city and the nation.
“The power is off again!” my Aunt Sylvia exclaimed into the phone. This wasn’t the first time I’d received a call from her like this. In fact, this was the second time in the last year that her power had been shut off and she’d called me in a tizzy.
Betrayal is dependent on your expectation. If you don’t have high hopes for someone, you won’t feel betrayed. If you go into business with a man named “Jimmy Con-Artist,” you might not be surprised if you get swindled. But when you actually do have expectations of or trust in someone, like a professional caregiver, if they engage in cruel and harmful betrayal like financial abuse, it cuts deep.
Imagine that you meet two individuals today at a senior center. Each offers to help you identify some important resources that will make your life better. Both of these people identify themselves as volunteers for nonprofit advocacy organizations. They tell you that, as an older adult, you are eligible for some generous support through programs that you had no idea even existed. Both of these kind individuals express a genuine wish to help you gain access to these benefits, so your life can turn around and you can start living more comfortably.
When Tasha realized that her uncle had been stealing his mother’s money for years—small amounts at a time that had been getting bigger—she says she felt paralyzed by the shock of it. Lee had offered to manage his mother’s bills and other finances, and the rest of the family trusted that everything was taken care of. Tasha could hear her uncle’s voice in her head if she were to ask him about it: “I think my mom wants me to have some compensation for all the time I spend. It’s not really a big deal. I’m going to inherit a lot of it anyway.”
July 4th is the day to celebrate our dream of freedom and equality. But June is the month to remember the reality of our inequality and our aching responsibility to recommit to freedom. June is World Elder Abuse Awareness Month, and we will work to lift the veil of denial, finger-pointing, and mistaken relief that elder abuse “isn’t my problem.” The problems and the solutions belong to every single one of us as an interdependent community made up of diverse ages, lifestyles, and personal desires for happiness.
We all know what it means to experience particular challenges and vulnerabilities—sometimes based on the phase of life we’re in; a health condition that limits us physically, mentally, or even emotionally; or maybe a job that invites risks and complications. In older age, we may be challenged to trust more people and more social services that help fulfill some of our needs. That extension of trust is itself a vulnerability, and the harm done to older adults under these conditions of trusted service—and in situations where other vulnerabilities are exploited—is considered elder abuse.
Think of how many movies and TV shows have a joke, or a series of jokes, where an older adult wants to have fun, or swears, or goes out on a date. It’s usually met with a wisecrack putting them back in their place, or even general shock. It’s almost always played for laughs. The implication, of course, is that once you’re older, you should no longer want to have a life the way you once did. That your life, essentially, is closed to new experiences.
It’s hard to overestimate the enormous gains of the LGBTQ movement over the last two decades. Once thought unthinkable, marriage rights have been expanded nationwide. Bigotry is shunned, instead of accepted. And while incivility and indecency are retrenching, and the victories of the last 20 years are suddenly uncertain, the battlefield has shifted—it’s much more difficult to take away rights in our modern day.
Institute on Aging (IOA) CONNECT is your direct line to us and the starting point for help with your concerns about the needs of older adults and adults with disabilities. IOA CONNECT links you with our services, as well as community services available. Reach out to connect with us.
Phone: (415) 750 – 4111 | Fax: (415) 750 – 5338
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