By Brandi Makuski

June is Elder Abuse Awareness Month — and experts from Portage Co. Adult Protective Services say they took in 60 reports last year alone.

“We know it’s happening more than what’s being reported,” said Barb Saddison from APS, adding about half of those reports resulted in some form of formal intervention by county agencies. “A lot of times, the victim is too proud, or too private, to accept any help.”

Saddison was joined by SPPD Sgt. Anthony Zblewski, as well as Melissa Madlina and Lexi LeBlanc, also from APS, for the installation of a large banner announcing the awareness campaign at Community Investors Bank, 5517 Vern Holmes Dr. The banner will be moved to different locations throughout the county, she said. 

Zblewski said elder abuse can be hard to investigate because it’s exhibited via a spectrum of behaviors. 

“It could be something as horrible as physical or sexual abuse, to someone being taken advantage of financially, it can be power and control, coercive behavior over a senior citizen, things like that,” Zblewski said. “Many times it’s family, friends, caregivers…people who know the lives of the elderly, and they know what buttons to push; how to get access to their money, their medications, things like that.”

Madlina said not surprisingly, the highest number of calls received in her department involve self neglect cases.

“There are people who aren’t able to take care of themselves, maybe there are physical ailments, maybe it’s a hording issue, but that’s our highest number of contacts,” she said. “And there are more everyday. That’s the Greatest Generation (people born during the Great Depression), and they’ve always been so self-reliant, until suddenly they weren’t.”

Zblewski said some signs of elder abuse are obvious — to include new or recurring wounds and bruises — but other signs aren’t as clear, and include financial scams and emotional abuse.

“There is a place to go for family members or friends who feel like someone they know is being abused or taken advantage of,” he said. “If they think, ‘Something just isn’t right’, they can contact Health and Human Services. Sometimes they identify other resources that are available that the public may not know about. The elderly are typically very proud, very private, and maybe sometimes don’t realize what’s happening to them isn’t normal.”

Portage Co. Health and Human Services can be reached at (715) 345-5350. For more information on Adult Protective Services, click here.