A bad cloud count

There are stark, disturbing clouds darkening parts of every community and neighborhood in Sonoma County. Please be alerted that these clouds are increasing and will not go away without our intervention.
These clouds show up in the middle of a quiet residential block in Cloverdale or over a retirees’ mobile home park on the outskirts of Windsor. A Sebastopol home, once full of a family and many visitors is now darkened in near silence and mystery, home to a single elderly occupant. Healdsburg, like every other city in Sonoma County registers an official “dark cloud” count in the hundreds and the lower Russian River has an equally alarming tally.
Under these dark clouds, mostly hidden from the closest of neighbors, exists a rising crisis of elder abuse and neglect. Official cases reached 4,400 last year, a 70 percent increase in just the last five years. And these are only the official dark clouds. Sonoma County Human Service Department officials estimate that only one in 23 cases of elder abuse is ever reported.
What these numbers tell us is that all of our communities are sharing a tragic epidemic that can not be curtailed without the intervention of individual neighbors, family members and community volunteers.
Next Monday (June 15) is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. More than 4,300 purple flags will be displayed at senior centers throughout Sonoma County. It will be a sad and ironic public display. The more flags you see in your community, the less you will want to celebrate.
Elder abuse comes in many forms, often counted in financial terms and not physical attacks. Elder abuse can also be emotional, sexual and much less traceable in other forms.
It can mean denying support, forcing social isolation or being victim to bullying and scare tactics. In all cases, elder abuse is a crime, punishable by law. Many cases of elder abuse are self-inflicted but include troubling causes due to poverty or other social conditions.
Sonoma County is full of elderly people. By the end of the decade, one of every four county residents will be age 60 and older. While the county has a supportive network of local senior centers and connected nutrition, advocate and educational programs, it has obviously not been enough.
Why not? What else must be done? It is one thing to count the dark clouds and put out purple flags. It will take a change of culture and habit to remove the clouds and bring so many shameful family and neighborhood secrets out in the open.
Already, financial institutions, medical, social welfare and other public employees are required by law to report cases of suspected elder abuse. But all of us should be reporting any and all suspected cases.
Report concerns to Adult Protective Services, (707) 565-5940 or (800) 667-0404. If abuse or neglect is suspected inside a care facility, call the county’s Ombudsman Program at (707) 526-4108 or (800) 231-4024. Most of the time, cases can be reported anonymously, but it is much more helpful to give your name for important follow-ups and outcomes.
A big reason so many dark elder abuse clouds exist over Sonoma County is too few of us know the warning signs of this series of domestic crimes. It is not always comfortable to take a closer, second look at suspected cases, but it will make a difference if we do.
It takes at least one family member to rescue a trapped, tricked or trampled older relative from another family member. A neighbor might feel “too nosy” for prying into another household’s change of habits or activity, but who else can help?
The alarming increase of reported elder abuse cases across Sonoma County needs to be a higher priority for our senior service and care facility professionals and the rest of us.
This societal catastrophe is both a prevention (education) and intervention issue. They might bear as ugly reminders, but maybe we should keep the purple flags out for a longer display.
— Rollie Atkinson