GBO NEWS: Financial Elder Abuse; Older Women; Justice in Aging
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
February 19, 2015 — Volume 15, Number 3
Editor’s Note: GBO News, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generation publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. You can subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge simply by sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. You’ll receive the table of contents as e-mail, just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org.
IN THIS ISSUE: Data Free for the Breaching
1. CRIME HOUNDS: Sources on Financial Elder Abuse
2. MEET-UP BEAT: Aging in America Conference, March 23-27; ***What’s Next Boomer Business Summit, March 26 — Both in Chicago
3. THE BOOKMOBILE: Women in Late Life; ***The Age of Dignity; ***Aging in the Right Place; ***The Caregivers (now in paperback)
4. LEGAL EAGLES GET NEW NAME — JUSTICE IN AGING
1. CRIME HOUNDS — Sources on Financial Elder Abuse
If a reporter knows well enough to take a proprietary “study” with a grain of salt, when is it also appropriate to sprinkle its findings with some healthier sea salt? That is, when can a journalists learn from market research that may well be steeped in conflicted interests but still offer useful facts and suggest worthy questions to ask?
A new study we received from True Link Financial, a company marketing fraud-protection services, estimates that a previous and widely cited estimate by the now-defunct MetLife Mature Market Institute was too limited and falls short of the real annual loss by a stunning 12 fold. Scary for the very consumers whose interests the study purports to protect? That may well cross your mind, as it did GBO’s, but someone’s self-interest isn’t necessarily uninformative.
MetLife’s earlier 2011 report, titled “Elder Financial Abuse: Crimes of Occasion, Desperation, and Predation Against America’s Elders,” determined that seniors lost $2.9 billion to predators in 2008. Although the MetLife unit was part of another commercial enterprise, they did this and an earlier study in collaboration with the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA), and the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech University.
The new report, “The True Link Report on Financial Elder Abuse,” used research from it’s own “data science team” in collaboration with the highly respected industry analyst Laurie Orlov (mentioned elsewhere in this issue of GBONews.org). It calls the previous calculation “a dramatic underestimate: Our research reveals that seniors lose $36.48 billion each year to elder financial abuse.” The company conducted a “Senior Vulnerability Survey” of family caregivers for older Americans.
Although it’s tempting for reporters simply to default to a truth “somewhere in between,” reporters confronted with so significant a research disparity might do well to ignore the quantitative gap and assess what they might discern from the qualitative issues arising in the two approaches. What’s legitimate and what might be stretching the marketable truth? GBONews will leave that judgment to the scrutiny of our readers. But for now, it’s worth noting some useful observations in the True Link study.
How Do We Abuse Thee, Let Us Count the Ways
True Link says its analysis broadens previously narrow definitions of financial abuse. It explains, for instance, that the MetLife study “added up the financial losses reported in three months of published news stories, despite research consistently finding that more than 90% of financial exploitation of seniors goes unreported. While the MetLife study was based on an estimate of approximately 2,000 instances of fraud every year, other research indicates that closer to 6 million seniors fall victim to fraud every year.”
Saying they aim to capture mass-market financial exploitation, True Link observes, “So often, the ways older adults are defrauded appears to be legal because of a disclaimer or fine print. Maybe the salesperson didn’t actually lie, but just said something confusing that led to an unexpected, unwanted, or unnecessary charge. It is clear that deceptive practices like these should be included in any definition of elder financial abuse. The law varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but across the board it is illegal to deceptively profit from the infirmity of an elderly person.”
As a bona fide senior consumer, this editor has thoughts very much along these lines every time I receive a phony-sounding voice mail claiming to reduce my mortgage payments, which I don’t have; win a cruise or jump at my last chance to reduce my credit card interest rate. (Great way to this–pay your balance as soon as possible.)
But, also, you’ll see other useful sources in True Link’s extensive footnotes and credits. For example, the report says its survey design was guided by recommendations of an expert panel of fraud researchers convened by the Financial Fraud Research Center at the Stanford Center on Longevity, [http://tinyurl.com/lkwzjw8] in conjunction with the congressionally-charted nonprofit Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). That invaluable report is “Financial Fraud and Fraud Susceptibility in the United States: Research Report from a 2012 National Survey.”
Survey subjects included a wide age range of Americans, and the Stanford/FINRA study found that those 65 and older “are more likely to be targeted by fraudsters and more likely to lose money once targeted. Older respondents were 34% more likely to have lost money than respondents in their 40s.”
Published in 2013, this Stanford/FINRA analysis measured the incidence of financial deception first by asking whether participants had ever been defrauded. Then followed a series of questions about subjects’ personal experience of and engagement with11 different types of financial offers, “all of which are known to be rife with fraud, but which were not identified as fraudulent in the questions.” These offers included “419” frauds (e.g., Nigerian e-mail schemes), lottery scams, penny stock sales, boiler room calls, pyramid schemes and free lunch seminars that turn out to be sales pitches.)
According to the Stanford/FINRA findings, “When asked directly whether they had ever participated in a fraudulent investment, only 4% said yes and 2% said they were not sure.” However, 84% reported being solicited with at least one of the 11 types of potentially fraudulent offers, of whom at least 16% had invested money in one or more of the flimflams. And 11% acknowledged making a worthless investment in at lest one offer.
And don’t forget to keep an eye on AARP’s Fraud Watch Network with alerts on the latest scams and schemes.
So, if you go in-depth on the growing scourge of elder financial exploitation, see where even commercial sources might take you. Those interested in the True Link report, quite detailed at 44 pages plus infographics, may wish to contact the firm’s Claire McDonnell, a co-author of the report, at (561) 568-0410; claire@truelinkfinancial.com.
2. MEET-UP BEAT– ASA & What’s Next
*** AGING IN AMERICA, CHICAGO, MARCH 23-27: The American Society on Aging’s (ASA) 2015 Aging in America annual conference will be held in Chicago, March 23-27 (Monday through Friday). The professional conference, which claims 2,500 attendees, also incorporates several mini-conferences, and one in particular, the What’s Next business and aging program, being held on March 26, is especially welcoming of media. More about that below.
As in the past two years, after a hiatus of several years, ASA will have a non-staffed pressroom available — opening the first day and closing at the end of the day March 26. Journalists wishing to cover the conference may register by calling or e-mailing Jutka Mandoki (ASA membership development director) — 415-974-9630 or jmandoki@asaging.org. The conference website includes no information about press registrations or a media section, as it used to, so interested press folks do need to contact Mandoki directly. They can also be capricious about who they allow press credentials, although GBONews understands this has improved more recently. (Let us know if you have a problem registering.)
Those who attend typically also try to get together late one afternoon to connect and talk about the conference and what they’re writing about. Reporters can find details about the conference at the Aging in America website. You also can go there to search conference schedule for sessions that interest you — and put together a conference planner to keep track of where you want to be each day. The conference hotel is the Hyatt Regency Chicago ($219 a night single/double) and reporters coming in for it you might want to check bargain-search websites like Hotels.com or Kayak.com to find other hotels nearby.
Thanks to long-time age-beat journalist, Warren Wolfe, [warren.wolfe11@gmail.com] for providing GBONews information on this year’s conference. Reporters expecting to attend are welcome to contact him to learn more about the pressroom location at the conference and of any media meet-ups or edible outings being planned.
*** 2015 What’s Next Boomer Business Summit is a mini-conference being held also at Chicago’s Hyatt Regency, all day March 26. It started a dozen years ago as an extension of ASA’s Business Forum on Aging. As this editor has often advised even health or feature writers, this gathering (along with it’s California companion event in Silicon Valley in June) can be a great place to find stories at the hinge of technology and public access to innovation and practice in aging.
What’s Next founder and director Mary Furlong, noted in an e-mail, “The summit will bring together top business and organizations focused on the boomer market and beyond, while examining the perspectives of the Millennials, and their role in shaping boomer priorities.”
Not only does What’s Next show off what’s new, but presentations—several moderated by prominent journalists—include some of the sharpest analysis of trends among older Americans and emerging areas of the mature-consumer market.
For instance, there aren’t any keener analysts and critic of the continuing-care field than What’s Next regular Laurie Orlov of Aging in Place Technology Watch. Sessions also include leading entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in aging, who can provide reporters with insiders’ views of what is and isn’t on the public horizon.
Among journalists on this year’s program are author Gail Sheehey, Eric Taub (New York Times), top age-beat freelancer Sally Abrahms, Reuters columnist Mark Miller, and New York Times and Forbes columnist Kerry Hannon.
Participants include both those from the for-profit and nonprofit realms of aging, emphasized in this year’s theme, “Collaborating in the Longevity Marketplace.” Plenaries and breakout sessions will focus on such areas as trends in housing, transportation, social and mobile marketing and Commerce, grandparenting, caregiving–and pets.
Reporters coming to the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit need to register separately from the ASA conference. Any interested media should contact Nicole Tieman, Susan Davis International PR, 202.414.0799; ntieman@susandavis.com. Also, their Twitter and Facebook pages are regularly updated and good sources for information on the conference.
3. THE BOOKMOBILE
*** Women in Late Life: Critical Perspectives on Gender and Age by Martha Holstein, PhD, is being published Feb. 28 by Rowman & Littlefield. Holstein, who teaches aging and health policy at the University of Chicago and also taught at Loyola University, is currently in what passes for busy retirement these days as a consulting expert at the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group in Chicago. Holstein, who will be presenting at next month’s American Society on Aging conference, in Chicago has a deeply philosophical and rather subversive viewpoint. That is, besides all of the hoopla about “successful aging,” Holstein reminds us that, yes, we also get old and sick and our society needs to respect that, too. Older women are especially vulnerable in the United States, and without changes in this country’s fragmented and dysfunctional long-term system, as well as poor income supports through Social Security and related sources, things will get only worse.
In Holstein’s introduction to Women in Late Life, she writes, “The goal should be the valuing of the whole of life in all its manifestations, not only when it is physically strong. To act as if we can evade chronic illness is to reinforce already powerful cultural fears about bodily suffering and old age, fears that further marginalize the people who live with debilitating conditions, while blinding us to their hopes, dreams and struggles.”
Rowman & Littlefield, a leading academic publisher, is releasing the book in both hardcover (with the usually crazy institutional price) and paperback for about $30. Journalists can request a press review copy and media release at reviews@rowman.com.
*** The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America, by 2014 MacArthur “Genius” Ai-jen Poo, with freelancer Ariane Conrad, is new from The New Press. Poo is among the leading voices for home care and related workers, that is, the often-dedicated but beleaguered, under-trained and underpaid people, whom this country expects to provide most of the care to us as we age. Poo blends her own story of her grandmother and others, into those of many others and, ultimately, cogent arguments for better care for this nation’s caregivers.
Among her most compelling discussions is one central to who does so much of the caregiving in the United States, but is distinct from the expected labor issues of employment conditions and compensation. She deftly connects the dots between U.S. caregiving—with a rapidly growing older population even amidst a shrinking health care labor force prepared for their geriatric needs—and the stark reality of this nation’s immigration debate. The book’s facts, figures and numerous personal stories should reporters with an authoritative angle too seldom explored in detail about who, exactly, is providing aid and comfort our communities’ bipartisan mothers and grandmothers.
Poo writes, “ In order for home care workers to be woven into the fabric of the country, not one can work in the shadows. Opening a road to citizenship for the undocumented will help bring the workforce into the full light of our economy, releasing enormous pressure on workers and the families who depend on them. No one responsible for caring for the most precious elements of our lives—our homes and families—should be at risk of being torn from their own homes and families as a result of our immigration policies.”
Poo director the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and co-directs the Caring Across Generations campaign. She has been organizing immigrant women workers for two decades. In 2000, Poo co-founded Domestic Workers United (DWU), the New York organization that spearheaded the successful passage of the state’s historic Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010.
Review copies are available from Julie McCarroll at the New Press, 212.564.4406, jmccarroll@thenewpress.com.
A News “Fork”–Two New Reports on Home Care Workers–tucks in nicely to Poo’s Age of Dignity. The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), a group she’s worked with quite a bit, just published “Paying the Price: How Poverty Wages Undermine Home Care in America.”
Then this Friday (Feb 20), they are releasing findings from a companion study of the Homecare Aide Workforce Initiative (HAWI), a program designed to improve the quality of training and employment for home health aides as a strategy for improving home care quality for older adults.
Both reports are from the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), which advocates for the direct-care workforce. Their release notes, “The U.S. Department of Labor projects that we will need another 1 million home care workers over the decade 2012-2022. In New York City alone, it is anticipated that 76,000 more home care aides will be needed, up 48 percent from the number of aides employed in the city today.” Reporters interested in these studies can contact PHI’s Deane Beebe, (646) 285-1039; dbeebe@phinational.org.
***Aging in the Right Place by gerontologist Stephen M. Golant, PhD, is just out from Health Professions Press. Golant, an urban geographer at the University of Florida, Gainesville, set the unusual goal of exploring the emotional effects of where people live on seniors’ well-being. One of the leading—and most articulate—experts on senior housing and related issues, Golant covers long-term care, health care, housing, planning and public policies.
The new book, Golant says, “argues there are many pathways to thriving in old age, ranging from aging in place to moving to housing and care settings specially tailored to match a person’s lifestyle and vulnerabilities.” He focuses on “the often overlooked emotional challenges individuals face because of changes in their health, mobility, finances, marital status and communities.” Golant developed a new approach he calls “residential normalcy” to help older adults identify their best housing and long-term care options.
For the book, Golant says he wanted to go beyond the usual academic and professional evaluation of residential and care environments, because those “detached and scientific judgments were not enough.” Rather, he said, “We wanted to get into the heads of older people to fully appreciate whether their places of residence influenced their well-being.” The book, which this editor is eager to dig in to, promises to evaluate “the current role of family assistance and private sector initiatives to government programs, as well as future potential smart-home technologies and innovative housing, planning, and long-term care solutions.”
Weighing in at 416 pages, the thick quality-paperback also comes with a hefty academic-publisher’s price at $54.95. It’s not a Sunday book review entry so much as an education – and potential author-interview source at the front door to one of the most compelling issues of this aging society. Golant’s book includes interviews with a wide range of seniors in diverse living situations. Reporters can request press information and a media review copy from Kaitlin Konecke, (410) 337-9585 x181; e-mail: kkonecke@healthpropress.com. Contact Golant at (352) 294-7505; or e-mail golant@ufl.edu.
*** The Caregivers: A Support Group’s Stories of Slow Loss, Courage, and Love, by Nell Lake (Scribner) is coming out in paperback. Lake spent two years sitting in on weekly meetings of a hospital’s caregivers support group. As GBONews noted of the hardcover edition last year, among those in the support circle were Penny, a botanist in her 50s, caring for her aging mother; Daniel, a survivor of Nazi Germany who tended to the needs of his ailing wife; and William, whose wife suffers from Alzheimer’s. Journalists can request a press review copy and media kit on the book from Alexsis Johnson: Alexsis.Johnson@simonandschuster.com; 212-698-2451. To discuss the book with Lake, e-mail her at nell.lake@verizon.net.
Unrelated to caregiving, Lake will also appear at the opening keynote session of Boston University’s Power of Narrative Conference, on March 27. In this case the caring scene will shift to Syria. Lake will moderate an on-stage conversation with her friend Theo Padnos, who wrote last fall in the New York Times Magazine about his harrowing two-year captivity and torture in Syria. Not really related to my book, but perhaps interesting.
4. LEGAL EAGLES GET NEW NAME — JUSTICE IN AGING
Justice in Aging (Fighting Senior Poverty Through Law) will become the new name of the 43-year-old National Senior Citizens Law Center on March 2. The launch comes with a new website and expanded social media channels. NSCLC was always too long and awkward. “Senior citizens” emerged in the 1960s as a term favored by legal advocates for older Americans because they believed it would identify their citizenship as worthy of more respect in the nation’s democratic framework. Few if anyone else took that meaning though, and “senior citizen” (unlike the still preferred “senior” or “elder”) was perceived widely as patronizing. The late comedic genius George Carlin riffed on it as a “bloodless term.” But this especially worthy organization has been stuck with it, certainly with its defenders, for four decades.
GBONews isn’t enamored of Justice in Aging (JIA), which sounds more like an apt tagline to a more descriptive logo, but it is an improvement. More significantly, JIA will continue it’s fine efforts at administrative advocacy and litigation. To be clear, the group’s Executive Director Kevin Prindiville and staff attorneys in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif., do not handle individual legal services case. Instead, they challenge laws and regulations that adversely affect low-income older people with limited or no access to legal help.
For instance, NSCLC won a class action suit against the Social Security Administration (SSA) four years ago in a Federal District Court (Clark v. Astrue) case, thus halting the agency’s policy of denying or stopping benefits for reasons the court determined were clearly in violation of the law, The ruling affected over 100,000 impoverished individuals. The was definitely a case that brought Justice in Aging.
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