by Ruth Leubecker

Magnified by the growing demographic of the elderly and the aversion to report, elder abuse must now also contend with inadequate staffing and stagnant funding.

State caseworkers are short-staffed enough that they often can’t read through all the new cases in a given day. One caseworker, stipulating that she remain nameless, said that the daily number of reports of abuse and neglect among the elderly and disabled ha beesn increasing steadily over many months.