Ohio District 5 Area Agency On Aging - Episode 4 - Adult Protective Services

Rick Meeker is a Community Living Manager with the Ohio District 5 Area on Agency. Rick provides very important information about Adult Protective Services. The month of June is Elder Abuse Prevention Awareness month. During the podcast, Rick shares risk factors for older adults and how they can assist people.  

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We welcome you to the latest episodeof the Area Agency on Aging podcast Age
with us here on the iHeartRadio app. The month of June is Elder Abuse
Awareness Month, and we are goingto talk about many things this morning with
Rick Meeker, who is the CommunityLiving manager with the Ohio District five Area

(00:22):
Agency on Aging. First of all, Rick, good morning, Thanks for
coming in. How are you today? Excellent? Thank you very much,
thanks for having me here. Absolutely, we are going to jump in,
as I mentioned, the month ofJune Elder Abuse Awareness Month and learn about
adult Protective Services. Before we do, let's find out a bit about you.
So you've been working, you toldme share with our listeners. Have

(00:44):
you been there for better than adecade with the Area Agency? Yes.
I started in twenty ten with theArea Agency on Aging and I became a
community living manager a little bit underten years ago, about eight to ten
years ago. I started supervising theAdult Protective Services program in twenty seventeen,
so we've been doing that for approximatelyseven years now, a little over that.

(01:07):
All right, So let's learn aboutthat. So let's start at the
top, adult Protective Services. Canyou kind of explain that for us?
In adult Protective Services was established tobe able to assist people sixty and overliving
in the community. And what ourrole is to do is to assess and
investigate allegations of abuse, neglect,and exploitation. When we investigate and let's

(01:32):
say we see concerns that that's goingon, what we'll do is we'll offer
protective services. And protective services arethose services that are put in place to
help older adults to prevent them frombeing abused, neglect, and exploited.
In some cases, we might notvalidate the allegations. Maybe we don't find
that that specific allegation, whether it'sexploitation or abuse, is going on,

(01:55):
but maybe there's other concerns. Thatdoesn't mean we're going to say, Okay,
we're going to walk away. We'restill going to try to address those
concerns as well to get folks theresources and supports they need to help them
with any struggles that they're going through. Now, as somebody hears an older
adult, what's kind of the agewe're talking about. It's sixty and over
is the definition for what the statesays as an older adult in Ohio,

(02:19):
and it has to be somebody whois living in the community. So there's
other folks that assist. A budsmanwill assist for folks that are living in
a nursing facility, assist at living. But somebody living independently in the community,
in one of those communities settings,we're going to be able to assist
and help them. The voice youare hearing today is Rick Meeker, who
is with the Ohio District Vive AreaAgency on Aging. He's a community living

(02:43):
manager. All right, so wetalked about adult protective services. We've heard
you say abuse, neglect, andexploitation. What exactly is considered that?
Do you have some guidelines for usthere? Sure? And the guidelines are
from the Ohio Administrative Code and itsays here, abuse is the infliction of
injury upon an adult unreasonable confinement,intimidation, or cruel punishment with resulting physical

(03:09):
harm, pain, or mental anguish. This includes the categories of physical abuse,
emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.The other category neglect. We take
a look at that and that's afailure of an adult to provide for the
self goods or services necessary to avoidphysical harm, mental anguish, or mental
illness. Or it's the failure ofa caretaker to provide such goods or services,

(03:32):
or in some cases abandonment. Onething I do want to stress with
folks is with neglect. The definitiondoes not say intentional. Now, in
some cases we do see where itis cruel malicious, and we do see
some intent. Unfortunately, other cases, folks are just having a difficult time
meeting their basic needs because of inflation. Currently, there are a lot of

(03:53):
folks that are falling in this boat, Folks that are living on a fixed
income where maybe they see minimal increasesin their income, maybe from Social Security.
For a lot of folks, it'svery difficult to keep up with the
increase with inflation. So people arehaving to make really tough choices. Do
I pay for this medication, doI eat food? What do I do?

(04:14):
Do I cut down on meals?That's huge, So that is something
we take a look and we tryto assist with as well as to be
able to get them the resources totry to help them in those situations where
they're having difficulty meeting those basic needs, medical needs or whatever services they might
need. Exploitation also another huge thingin Ohio. It's the unlawful or improper
act of a person using enter oneor more transactions an adult or adults resources

(04:40):
for monetary or personal benefit, profit, or gain when the person obtained or
exerted control over the adult or theadults resources in any of the following way
without the adult's consent or the personauthorized to give consent on the adult's behalf
beyond the scope of the express orimplied consent of the adult or the person

(05:01):
authorized to give consent on the adult'sbehalf. And this can be done by
deception, by threat, or byintimidation. So for folks, we'll hear,
well, I did give them moneyand I didn't know who I was
given it to. It was somethingonline. It was my mistake, my
fault. Well, it was doneby deception in some of those cases where
we hear about those online scams,I got no idea who's on the other

(05:25):
end that I'm actually giving money to. So I can't fully consent because I
don't know what I'm consenting to.So the state put that in that if
it's done by deception to coerce anolder adult to get money, that counts.
Or also in some cases, unfortunately, there are situations where families will
manipulate in order to gain access toand older adults resources something else we look

(05:46):
into. You are hearing again fromthe Ohio District five Area Agency on Aging
Today. The voice is Rick Meeker, who is with us on their latest
episode of their Age with Us podcast. As the month of June is Elder
Abuse Awareness Month and he has acommunity living manager. We're talking about adult
protective services. You bring up maybea scam or something like that, but

(06:10):
you hear about that a lot morenowadays, and you just have to be
oh so careful when it comes toonline even telephone calls you might receive right
you do. There's a lot offolks. We tell folks too where to
stay safe. Pause before you respondto anybody. If you're getting a call,
you don't know who it's from,and you pick it up somebody's asking
for something, especially if they're sayingyou have to do this immediately. Eye

(06:31):
from the IRS. A lot ofpeople they'll want to go ahead and respond
immediately because it's fear. I don'twant to go to jail, I don't
want to pay a huge fine.I better give them the information that they
need and by the time everything isall said and done, they've been scammed.
And it's unfortunate where again people arebeing really put out there in an

(06:55):
emotional way to respond, and itis scary. Sometimes it's out of love,
that emotional side of the brain.A lot of times these scammers will
go ahead and attack because once thatside of the brain is engaged, that
logical, that rational side that maysay, hey, wait a moment.
When that gets overridden, that's whenthings happen. So we always encourage people
before you respond to anybody, Welet folks know because, like you said,

(07:19):
it's scary with some of the folksthat are perpetrating individuals, and they're
very good at it. To giveyourself a little bit of time, try
to stay educated. And if it'ssomebody who's trying to instill a sense of
urgency somewhere where you're feeling a senseof fear. Maybe it's a grandson calling

(07:40):
because he's in jail. I didn'trealize my grandson was in this territory or
area. We've seen that with grandsonscams. Stop a moment to think about
that, maybe do some research,and then follow back up. We again
are hearing from the Ohio District fiveArea Agency on Aging Rickmaker Community Living Managers
with us, we're talking about adultprotective Services now you've mentioned a lot already,

(08:03):
any trends you're seeing recently across toOhio. Back in twenty twenty two,
just to give you a little bitof information, some of the statistics
that have been seen across the stateof Ohio, there were twenty twoenty seventeen
referrals that were received for neglect,there were nine five hundred and forty five
referrals received for exploitation, and abusewas alleged in five eight hundred and twenty

(08:28):
three referrals. Now, while that'sacross the state of Ohio and the counties
we administer adult protective services in Marion, Crawford, Knox, and y and
not that's a trend consistent with whatwe're seeing. We're seeing a lot of
cases of neglect, folks having areally difficult time meeting their basic needs getting
appropriate services. And we are seeingand we're trying to do a lot of

(08:48):
information events out there to let folksknow about exploitation. We're definitely seeing that
as an increase as well. Now, what are you hearing, what are
you seeing about risk factors for olderadults? There several risk factors that play
a factor into whether or not someone'sabuse neglected, exploited social isolation. That's
huge. A lot of places sawa spike during COVID. When we think

(09:13):
about that, that was one ofthe biggest areas of social isolation on a
huge scale. Physical illness, andthat can include folks suffering from form that's
leaving them disabled some form of that, cognitive impairments, drug and alcohol dependence,
dependence on others, a feelings ofvulnerability, older adults who have resources,

(09:37):
and older adults who may be overwhelmedintimidated by financial matters. Sometimes they
may not know about resources that areavailable to help them in those financial matters.
They want anybody to come in andtry to help them. Same thing
with folks that might be suffering somephysical limitations and impairments where suddenly I'm vulnerable,
I need help and I'm wanting tomake a quick decision to remedy that

(10:00):
anxiety that I'm experiencing, and Iget somebody in. Maybe I didn't do
homework on that individual and something happensand then I've become victimized. So that's
huge too, very important information.This morning, as we are chatting with
the Ohio District five Area Agency onAging with Rick Meeker, community living managered.
We are talking about the month ofJune being Elder Abuse Awareness Month and

(10:22):
Adult Protective Services. You brought upexploitation specifically, talk a bit more about
that. You know, how bigof an issue you know is that becoming
You've shared a lot, a lotalready and maybe some advice you have to
keep older adult safe, and itreally is a huge issue. The state
has recognized this. The National AdultProtective Services Association advised that only one in

(10:43):
forty four cases of exploitation are actuallyreported, So to put that in different
terms, for every one case thatexploitation comes forward, there's another forty four
older adults that cases are not gettingreported. So we're definitely trying to get
the information out and that's huge.We've noticed a lot of factors that play
a role into those not being reported, and in some cases it's because the

(11:09):
perpetrator is a family member or atrusted caregiver. There's a reluctance to end
the abuse in some situations, andthis is one of the things we come
across. Unfortunately, somebody feels obligated, will I have to give them this
money? Because if I don't,I don't know that I'll see them again.
I don't know that I'll see mygrandkids. Maybe they won't help me,
so I feel obliged to give themthat. Or even for folks that

(11:33):
are willing to say, yes,I was exploited, they're not necessarily willing
to do anything about it, involvinglaw enforcement, because it's tough, especially
when it's a family member. AndI acknowledge too, something that my staff
recognizes. If it was one ofour own kids, it would be tough
in order to take those steps tomake sure that my adult child doesn't do
that again. Sometimes there's just thatreluctance to end it. There can be

(11:56):
physical and emotional suffering. They don'tknow what's happening until the damage is done.
And one thing I had referenced beforeis that the scammers are very good
at accessing that emotional side of thebrain, so that I act in fear
I'm lonely. This is somebody who'sgiving me this reassurance, this emotional connection.
I want to stay in touch withthem. So the thing that we

(12:18):
always let folks know is it hasnothing to do with any kind of intelligence.
We can have people with multiple doctorateswho would still given the right circumstances
and situations succumb to scams of exploitation, So we let folks know so then
that way they can go ahead andreally try to let others know that this

(12:41):
is going on, this is ascam that they've been subject to, because
the more we hear about that,the more information we can put out and
educate others. So it helps us, but also it can help us for
that older adult to help them totry to give them some resolution, try
to help them to have some healingfrom this situation, and try to protect
them for future events as well,and in some cases actually try to help

(13:03):
them to recover some of the lossof that income and the assets. The
other thing, too is they don'tknow where to report it. That's huge.
As I mentioned before too, Oneof the things that I can't stress
this enough is just a pause.A lot of times, if I pause,
I check into it. Maybe Ireach out to family friends, maybe
I contact airy Agency on aging,Better Business Bureau, Attorney General's Office.

(13:26):
If somebody is saying, hey,you owe this money or you've won this
prize, if you send five thousanddollars, we'll send you two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a lot of timesthat pause. What that can actually do
is it allows the older adult tobe able to investigate, start engaging that
executive functioning in the mind, andthat really can help them to prevent themselves

(13:50):
from being victimized by exploitation. Sothat's huge, So we definitely encourage folks
to have that pause. We alsoencourage folks as well, where if you
have been the victim of the scam, whether email or phone, to change
those numbers. Change the email.Scammers now are selling information on the dark
web, and unfortunately, once you'vebeen the victim of scam, they've got

(14:13):
your number, they will come back. So we'd encourage you to change your
number as best as possible. We'dalso encourage you to stay educated on scams.
There's a lot of great outreach events. Area Agency on Aging will put
on different outreach events to educate folksto let them know about scams. There's
different speakers that will bring in toeducate folks. There's different places, as

(14:33):
I mentioned the Attorney General's Office,Better Business Bureau that you can contact to
find out about prevalent scams in thearea, or just looking for those events
in your community to look at speakersthat might be coming forward, but again
as much as possible, staying educatedon those scams, and also, as
I mentioned before, about being verycareful about who you let in to provide

(14:56):
assistance, continue to do research,homework. If you have somebody viding personal
care assistance homemaking, making sure youknow who's coming in to provide that assistance,
or if you have somebody providing assistancewith your finances, making sure you
know that it's somebody that you cantrust for that. You know something I
think about when you gave an examplea moment ago. Again, you're hearing
from Rick Meeker, Community Living Manager, Ohio District five Area Agency on aging.

(15:20):
We're talking about adult protective services.The month of June is Elder Abuse
Awareness Month. I think the exampleyou gave was, you know, you
send five thousand dollars. You knowyou've won some award kind of thing.
Somebody told me a long time ago. I heard it somewhere. If it
sounds too good to be true,you might want to look into that,
right, that is very true.That's excellent advice. And if I can

(15:41):
plan any seat in anybody's mind,that would definitely be it for today.
If it sounds too good to betrue, or if I'm immediately thinking if
I don't do this, I'm goingto go to jail. They're threatening all
these penalties in this harm. I'venever heard about this before, but somebody's
telling me this over the phone.Pause a minute, Yeah, that's really
good. Now, when you talkabout ways adult protective services, how you

(16:03):
guys can help people, how youcan assist people. Have we missed anything?
You want to let people know outabout ways you guys are able to
help people. And what we tryto do is and we work with the
older adult as best as possible.Huge for us is to promote the independence
dignity of the older adult living inthe community. So with cooperation with the
older adults, so we can offersome suggestions, but in some cases older

(16:26):
adults will want to think about it. They might contact us back later and
say, hey, you mentioned thisreferral by all means, would you be
able to go ahead and send thatinformation off for that referral And we can
do that. We'll go ahead andwe collaborate with friends, family as needed
and appropriate. We can send referralsfor different services and supports. There's different

(16:48):
programs through local councils on Aging thatwe might send for for home delivered meals.
For example, Area Agency on Agingin itself has a lot of different
programs that will send referrals for someof those programs that are out there.
Assists with chore services. Some ofthe things we saw is extermination deep cleaning.
If somebody hasn't been able to getsomebody to come out to their home

(17:11):
to help with cleaning, things canpile up. There's programs to be able
to assist with that. Some situationsit's one time cleaning and I'm good to
go. We can help with thatthat person is in charge. Home repair
assistance with some projects, personal careand homemaking services. We can link with
assistance to obtaining durable medical equipment.There's wellness programs and Area Agency on Aging

(17:36):
has programs such as Matter of Balancethat's out there and the Matter of Balance
again great way to stay socialized,Great to stay safe from falls, transportation
assistance, home delivered meals just someof the referrals we can make to Area
Agency on Aging as well, especiallythrough Adult Protective Services or just if you

(17:56):
call Area Agency on Aging. Thoseare some of the things we can do
and in some situations to help olderadults as well, we might temporarily provide
some case management service to be ableto assist them, help them get linked
to where they need to. Andin some cases it is more ongoing services
for case management. It could beto a local community agency such as a

(18:18):
mental health agency, or it couldbe to another group that provides mental health
services, so we can kind ofstep in and provide that case management until
we can get them connected to otherservices as well. Very important information this
morning from the Ohio District five AreaAgency on Aging. The voice you hear
again is Rick Meeker, Community LivingManager, and we're going to throw out

(18:40):
some phone numbers, we'll get youthe website all of that before we wrap
up our conversation this morning, andwe are again talking about adult protective services
with the Ohio District five Area Agencyon Aging. We mentioned the month of
June is Elder Abuse Awareness Month,and I know you want to talk about
someone who you guys have helped beenable to assist here. Share with us
that story if you could, thankyou. And in reviewing, I looked

(19:04):
at one of the stories where itwas somebody here within the past couple years,
and there's lots of different ways thatwere able to assist, but just
to drive home. Because I hadmentioned about exploitation and neglect in this went
hand in hand. So we hadan individual in their eighties who had been
the victim of scams and they lostmoney. Unfortunately, we were not able
to recover the money. We wereable to provide some education to try to

(19:27):
help that individual from being the victimof scams in the future. So ultimately
scamming was stopped, but it hadstill occurred and unfortunately for this individual,
they weren't able to pay some utilities. This individual had their electric shut off.
We were able to access funding tobe able to assist them with getting

(19:47):
their electric turned on, so wewere able. When we had closed our
case with this individual, this individualhad all utilities working, they were safe
in the community, and they wereable to remain independent. So that was
an exciting one for us to beinvolved with. You probably get a lot
of reports, I would think overthe course of the year, and I'm
sure you mention you could be afamily member reports, it could be a

(20:08):
neighbor, right, something like that. I would assume absolutely, And for
some individuals, as I mentioned before, we're there to help older adults wherever
they're at. So if you aresomebody that's calling regarding a family, a
friend, somebody that you're working withwho you're concerned about, it might be
several reports because we do want torespect the dignity of that person and we

(20:29):
want to respect their choice. Sofor some individuals it might take us we
get multiple reports and maybe it's thefourth fifth report where somebody says, you
know what, okay, enough isenough. I don't want to live in
this situation. Whether it's because ofchore service, I've decided I do want
to go ahead and get my homecleaned. Then after that I got plans
for how this will be taken careof. Great, that's fine, but

(20:52):
we want to be able to makesure to provide them access to that.
So there are different ways to getin contact with us if you would want
to make a report or just ifyou have any questions for us and for
adult Protective services. And it's inevery county in Ohio. The counties that
I'm going to be referring to withthe phone number are the counties that we

(21:14):
administer adult protective services to with areaAgency on aging. If you live in
a county in Ohio that I havenot mentioned. You can feel free to
reach out to the local Job andFamily services in order to be able to
make a report to Adult Protective Servicesand talk to them. For Crawford County,
that number is five six seven threenine three four seven two nine.

(21:41):
For Knox County seven four zero threenine seven seven one seven seven. For
Marion County, that number is sevenfour zero two two three one nine one
nine. For wyan Dot County thatnumber is four one nine six one seven

(22:07):
zero eight five five. There's anotherway too that the state has set up,
and they wound up doing a greatjob setting a portal up for folks
wherever you're at. If you're notsure what county, if you go to
the state portal, you put inthe report, it'll get to the right
Adult Protective Services agency. And thisonline referral from the State of Ohio is
APS dot JFS dot Ohio dot gov. And that's all a lowercase. And

(22:34):
if you're not sure, if yougo ahead and go to that portal and
you put in that website, it'llget you to where you need to be
to make that report. It'll getto the right agency, right Adult Protective
Services entity that's investigating that. Theother thing that I did want to state
as well as I know, wetalked about neglect being huge, and we
talked about some of the risk factorsthere. If you are an older adult

(22:56):
or you have family friends that areproviding care for an older at and you
are a need of service as anassistant some of the things that I mentioned
with the chores service. Maybe you'rein need of home repair, utility assistance.
There's programs that assist with that,depending upon qualifications, in what area
you're in, home delivered meals,transportation, and you're not sure where to
go to, you can always contactArea Agency on Aging at four one nine

(23:22):
five two four four one four fourand you can talk with one of our
staff there and we can discuss theoptions for you that might be available to
help you in those situations. Wementioned very very important information today from the
Ohio District five Area Agency on Agingin their latest podcast Age with Us as
we talk about adult protective services withRick Meeker, community Living Manager. We

(23:45):
mentioned the month of June is ElderAbuse Awareness Month. I just want to
throw out the website for the OhioDistrict five Area Agency on Aging. I
know you can find phone numbers,programs a lot of services that they offer.
It is AAA the number five Ohiodot org. So AAA five Ohio
dot org. Grick, did wemiss anything. I think we covered a

(24:07):
lot this morning. But you hearso much in the news about a scam
or about this or that, andyou mentioned pause, contacting somebody, whether
it's the area agency, maybe maybeyou call the police department. Just those
are the things I think if somebodywalks away today from chatting with you,
those are the things that you thinkyou really want people to know about.
Absolutely couple things, and definitely appreciatethe opportunity to talk to everybody in this

(24:30):
podcast. But first, as youmentioned, pause and feel free anyone that
you mentioned police, reach out toyour local adult protective services agency, Attorney
General's office, friend, family,anybody. But if somebody is saying something
to you and as you put it, sounds too good to be true,
I'm feeling excited I won this money, or I'm afraid and I'm feeling pushed

(24:55):
into responding, immediately pause, doa little bit of homework and do a
little bit of research, and getback with them if you need to.
If not, don't bother calling themback. If you find out that that
is a scam, do not engageany further. The other thing, too,
is for some folks, whether Imention something where you are struggling in
a situation in your home or you'vebeen the victim of exploitation, maybe you're

(25:21):
having a difficult time getting resources supports. There is help for you, So
I'd encourage you to reach out tothe numbers that we mentioned as well if
you're in need of any assistance atall. All right again, if you
need anything from the Ohio District fiveArea Agency on Aging AAA five Ohio dot
org. Rick Meeker, community Livingmanager with the District five Area Agency on

(25:42):
Aging, thank you so much forall the great information today. We really
appreciate it and enjoyed your visit today. Thank you very much. Appreciated the
time and the opportunity. Thank you,