Dear Cathy

It happened to me too.  Even though I was a mental health professional and care manager working with older adults.  Even though my husband and I had previously been caring for my grandmother in our home and received rave reviews about the care we were providing.   Isolation abuse happened to us. It all started in July 2014 when my grandma went under conservatorship with a court-appointed CA licensed professional fiduciary, precipitated by a family conflict over her care. All parties decided...

Here’s  a list of things abusers do when taking control, isolating and abusing  an elder. The same actions are also taken by guardians, strangers,  caretakers, a family member, banks, lawyers, business employees etc. You are not alone. I’ve come to the realization that there are common threads in how the abuse is accomplished. 1. The abuser earns the trust of the elder. 2. The abuser makes the elder dependent on him/her. 3.  The elder becomes scared to make the...

In the spirit of the season I’d like to remind us of the greatest gift we all possess and that is the blessing of HOPE! The world around us has conditioned us to believe we are of no value unless we possess money or things of monetary worth. We have become obsessed with having the newest, the best, the most expensive items of the moment. We talk constantly about what we WANT, teaching our children to do the same. Even our...

I have gotten stories from every state of our country, but recently I’ve been flooded with a large amount of stories from residents of the state of Washington who are experiencing isolation and abuse of the vulnerable. Because of their great need to be heard, I’m spotlighting one story a week from Washington State for a month’s time. I will continue to do this each month for each state.   As many of you may know, Kerri Kasem, as well as myself,...