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10 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday November 10, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Riviera Hairstylists 40th Anniversary Sale $ The spectre of elder abuse By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 75.00 905-845-8281 187 Cross Avenue (Unit 3) Oakville Don't let hearing loss prevent you from enjoying life! ON SITE HEARING TESTS BY OUR DISPENSING AUDIOLOGISTS The latest in digital technology 60 day trial period & more DVA, WSIB, third party insurers Ministry of Health/ADP approved OAKVILLE'S BEST BUY ON BATTERIES CALL TODAY TO BOOK YOUR APPOINTMENT Registered Audiologists ates 5 627 Lyons Lane Suite 203, Oakville 905-339-1397 It can be as brutal as a slap in the face or as subtle as a threat to withhold medicine. Elder abuse comes in all shapes, all sizes and it takes place almost everywhere, even in Oakville. Although the town's network of social services are available to help seniors with everyday living and reduce the number of incidents, acts of elder abuse continue to occur. Fortunately there are people charged with stopping it. Detective Constable Vince Mulholland of the Halton Regional Police Service's Seniors Office has been dealing with crimes against the elderly in Oakville for the nearly two years and notes that working elder abuse cases requires police to confront a wide range of criminal activity. "In general terms elder abuse can be financial, it can be an act of violence, it can be verbal, psychological, it can be a withdrawal of needs, it can be a lack of care for the individual," said Mulholland. "Anything that puts the senior in a position of disadvantage will qualify as elder abuse." Police say the elderly have DAVID LEA / OAKVILLE BEAVER PRIME TARGETS: Halton police Const. Jackie Brennan stands by an elder abuse awareness poster that promotes the issue, which remains a disturbingly common, but under-reported crime, in communities like Oakville and Burlington. Brennan noted that psychological abuse of seniors, although not a crime, is "very much out there," and can be equally as devastating to the victim as the defrauded. become prime targets for abuse because the world has become much more fast-paced than the one they grew up in. Combine the new technologies of telemarketing and email with the loneliness and isolation faced by many seniors and there is great potential for fraud, the most common form of elder abuse, to occur. In one case, remembered by Mulholland, a pair of Oakville senior citizens became the victims of the financial side of elder abuse when they received a phone call informing them that they were the winners of a foreign lottery. "Seniors and pretty much anybody need to be very careful with cold call emails or cold call phone calls where you're offered the opportunity of a lifetime," said Mulholland. "They tell you that to get this prize you have to forward some amount of money and the moment that happens that should immediately set off some red lights that that is a fraud." Unfortunately no red lights sounded for the Oakville couple, who agreed to pay large fees so that the lottery winnings would be released to them. "Needless to say they were defrauded out of a substantial amount of money, and this is an extremely difficult crime to investigate because it could be anywhere around the world that this money order could have gone to." While acts of elder abuse like this one can land the abuser in jail, facing a charge of fraud, theft, neglect, or assault, other acts do not cross this threshold, but are still devastating for the people facing them. "Psychological abuse is very much out there," said Constable Jackie Brennan, Elder Services Coordinator for the Halton Regional Police Service. 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