Susan Gaertner, Ramsay County Attorney was a recent speaker at Sunrise Rotary. Susan noted her connection to Rotary at the present is her daughter who is a Rotary Exchange Student now visiting Germany sponsored by White Bear Lake.

Susan spoke on  the increasing problem of Senior Abuse. Ramsay County and the City of St. Paul are dedicating a group of police members to deal with this problem.

It seems that in this age of Baby Boomers reaching retirement that this problem is getting worse. The causes may well be they are better off then the earlier generation and the pressures on younger people are forcing them to get into their Grandparents purse.

Recent incidences in Minnesota show that even in Nursing homes, those with Dementia and Alzheimer’s are being targeted because they less likely to report problems.

The most common abusers are Family members. For that reason, Susan said, it is important to always have a circle of people in the family check in often to see how things are going.

The problem will not go away because over 25% of the population is now over 65 and this is double of what is was in the year 2000.

She told the tragic story of a man who was literally corralled into his own room by his son, fitted with a plastic garbage bag for a diaper and left there to fend for himself.

Doctors have trouble identifying the problem because the elder person won’t admit something’s wrong and the physical signs are done in out of the way places on the body.

We have all heard of the con artists who take advantage of the trusting nature of seniors. “I have been in the prosecution business for 24 years, and I can assure that if it is too good to be true, it usually isn’t true” said attorney Gaertner.