County commissioner Scott Martin noted on Tuesday that, all too often, when people talk about protecting the vulnerable, they are only referring to children—and rarely to those in their later years. But, with a special justice assistance grant from the Pennsylvania commission on crime and delinquency, the County hopes to push a new initiative to better protect the elderly from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
At the Tuesday, March 30 county commissioners meeting, the board voted to apply for the state grant, which would help employ a new victim advocate in the district attorney’s office to focus exclusively on preventing abuse of the elderly and cracking down on such abuse whenever it may occur.
The DA’s office, according to victim witness services director Pamela Gosh, has already been working with the County’s office of aging for about a year to better spot occurrences of such abuse. If the grant is awarded, Gosh said, the office’s new advocate would supplement the current initiative by building community awareness of common scams as well as the warning signs of potential elderly abuse. The advocate would also track fraud trends in the county and provide support for victims.
According to Gosh, those who are affected by abuse or exploitation often hesitate to seek help, either out of shame for having been conned or because the perpetrator of abuse may be a member of their own family. For this reason, Gosh told NewsLanc that it is extremely difficult to gauge the frequency of elderly abuse in Lancaster.
Hopefully, Gosh said, the new advocate could also assist in gathering statistics of abuse, in addition to promoting a more effective line of communication with the elderly community.
Before the final vote, Martin asserted the value of this new initiative: “Even if we don’t [get the grant],” he said, “I think this is an endeavor we need to keep pursuing—especially given the size of the senior population in our community.”
