St. Paul's COO Ellen Schmeding Appointed To New CA Council

Jenny Milkowski: View here. Hey, a position elected by her peers Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of St. Paul's Senior Services, Ellen Schmeding takes on a new leadership state position advocating for our local seniors as well as seniors across the state. So, Ellen is with me now. Good morning to you. 

Ellen Schmeding: Good morning! Hi. Thank you, Jenny.

Jenny Milkowski: Um, so this, um, is, is the first ever California elder and disability justice coordinating council in San Diego. Please tell us all about it 

Ellen Schmeding: Well, you know, the governor of California about a year ago released the master plan for aging. And one of the top areas in the plan was to address abuse and neglect. Impacting older adults and persons with disabilities.  So the first meeting is the end of this month, and it's really our job to address the issues of abuse, neglect, fraud, exploitation and to really make California a much better place to live for all seniors. One of the things that happened during the pandemic was a serious social isolation concerns for older adults.  And that is one of the risk factors for abuse. And so looking ever more closely at what we can do to address this. I'll be coming together with advocates, government organization, representatives, and so many more to address these issues. Believe it or not, one out of every six persons over 60 is a victim of some form of abuse. And that's what we're trying to address in California. 

Jenny Milkowski: One out of six. And I legitimately was just going to ask you just how prevalent that seems like a really high number.

Ellen Schmeding: I know it and it's about five million across the nation. So, as I mentioned, social isolation and mental impairments are really two of the risk factors and those are things we can address.

Jenny Milkowski: Now. What, what other, um, things are you seeing? Uh, we're, you know, we're talking about equity inclusion as well for these seniors. Um, what sort of things will you be doing to make that a possibility. 

Ellen Schmeding: To start off with looking at many of the issues that are impacting older adults after COVID being able to get out and about again with the variant searching, that's been a problem, but right before this, and we expect this to end soon. We were able to have events, activities at St. Paul's, bring our seniors back into the mix. Look for ways to engage them and help them find a way to have meeting again in their lives with family friends. And so, I think at a statewide level, we'll be looking at what the risk factors are and how we can address them. Um, you know, I think that just bringing your attention to the issue, helping the everyday person understand what is abuse, what is neglect, how to report it, uh. Having additional resources for the long-term care, ombudsman, but overseas issues in skilled nursing or assisted living including dementia care, looking at, um, our adult protective services statewide that do so much good work, trying to help senior communities and families, um, to really address the issues. So, it's an exciting time moving forward, looking at the state that is making this a priority, I think is a very, very important element. 

Jenny Milkowski: Now, this seems more of like a legal issue, but, um, conservatorships, they've been in the news, you know, recently there've been a lot of documentaries, really shedding light on the elderly who are taken advantage of by these conservatorships. Do you guys delve into that sort of thing where you also try and protect them financially? 

Ellen Schmeding: Yes! You know, um, I previously served as public administr