Elder Law

Man Charged With Abusing His Elderly Mother

By Levin & Perconti

Many of our reports on this blog involve abuse and neglect of elderly residents at nursing homes. However, the sad reality is that senior citizens are abused in all different living situations, including when they are cared for by their own family members. Sometimes elder parents are even neglected by their own children.

The Times Daily wrote about one of those cases of family abuse last week. A 56-year old man was arrested and indicted for purposeful elder abuse and harassment. The victim was his 87-year old mother with whom the accused lived. Police were made aware of the problems after receiving several different complaints about the treatment the elderly woman was receiving.

Fortunately no physical abuse was involved, but investigators reported that the man controlled all aspects of his mother?s life?to her detriment. As expected, the controlling son has not been cooperative with the police and the victimized mother has attempted to defend her son. The complex mix of emotions involved in these inter-family abuse cases makes them particularly difficult

The local police chief explained, ?He was controlling her world and keeping her isolated from everyone.?

Most egregiously, the abuser was preventing his mother from receiving the medical treatment that she needed.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on November 23, 2010 (boomark / email).