New York, NY —
With the city facing a budget deficit that’s expected to balloon to $4 billion over the next two years, city agencies have been instructed to cut 7.5 percent of their budgets. Everything from daycare slots for low income families to dental clinics for kids, have been put on the chopping block.
One program slated for elimination by the Department for the Aging helps elder abuse victims – seniors who are taken advantage of because their age has made them weak and vulnerable. WNYC’s Cindy Rodriguez takes a look at who the program serves:
REPORTER: For the past few months 34 year old Holly Macrae has been making this weekly trip uptown to visit a 78 year old woman, one of the 24 clients currently on her caseload. The young, high energy social worker is employed by the Burden Center, a non-profit organization that holds one of nine elder abuse contracts expected to be cut in less than a month.
MACRAE: The elder abuse contract we cover is 59th Street and North river to river….
REPORTER: Macrae covers this entire area alone. The contracts are relatively small. All 9 cost the city 850-thousand dollars annually. The city says they serve 400 people. The non-profits that hold the contracts disagree and say the number is closer to twice that.
REPORTER: There are special caseworkers that investigate just elder abuse – they work for Adult Protective Services. But Macrae says she sees the clients that don’t meet APS criteria because they are not physically or mentally incapacitated. Maria Gonzalez falls into that category. That’s not her real name. Macrae says she’s asked to remain anonymous:
MACRAE: She’s an elderly woman whose adult son is a schizophrenic and is an alcoholic and they’ve been living in this situation for many years and the dynamic between them is ripening.
REPORTER: In August, Macrae arranged for a mobile unit, expert at handling the mentally ill, to visit the home and convince Gonzalez’s son to go to detox. He went but began drinking again and the social worker says his erratic behavior has continued. The mobile unit made a second visit on this particular morning but Gonazalez’s son was not around:
MACRAE: … so I think he took off for a little while. Right now I am trying to get her some services in the home. Get her on Medicaid. Get her on Meals on Wheels. Get her some support in the home so she’s not so dependent on him for the inconsistent support that he is able to give.
REPORTER: Macrae says the combination of Gonzalez growing weaker and her 48 year old son’s mental illness progressing is an ominous combination.
Maria Gonzalez is a charming 78 year old with a warm smile. She keeps a tidy home. Her kitchen is a spotless, and a pet bird chirps enthusiastically in the corner.
MACRAE / GONZALEZ: Is he here or is he still gone? He’s here. Ok so how about we all go downstairs. Yes, he’s angry…
REPORTER: Inside a recreation room on the ground floor of her housing development at a safe distance from her son, Gonzalez explains how he drinks everyday instead of taking the medication that helps control his schizophrenia:
GONZALEZ: … Now I don’t know what happen because he used to take the alcohol by six or seven in the night. Now it’s 9:30 in the morning he start drinking and finish one and go down and taken another one until he go to sleep…but he different from other people because he go to sleep but when he wake up he’s angry like you don’t believe….
GONZALEZ / REPORTER: What is he like when he’s drunk? Oh god…he’s loud. he goes out…let go of the door make a big noise…his voice change…something awful….it’s not his own way to talk.
REPORTER: Gonzalez imagines that at times like these, her son is conjuring up images of those who have harmed in the past:
GONZALEZ: …because he is not a fighting person and some people when he’s drunk take away the money from him and cigarettes and everything…it looks to me that when he’s drunk everything comes to his mind.
REPORTER: Gonzalez says in addition to the outbursts of anger, her son often falls down drunk inside the apartment and breaks things and he wakes her up in the middle of the night to find a random pencil, glasses or a certain jacket. She says when he recently went to detox, she spent two “beautiful weeks” at home. She laughs after calling it her vacation:
GONZALEZ: That’s when he went to the hospital, that was my vacation.
REPORTER: Despite her situation, the 78 year old who suffers from high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat maintains a sense of humor. In addition to her son’s mental illness, she’s also trying to care for a 39 year old daughter whose dying of cancer. She explains how not having her son inside her home changed things:
GONZALEZ: I was more calm. I could do my things quietly nicely, because you know I am a person that likes quiet I cannot take it too much noise…
REPORTER: Still, Gonzalez remains protective of her son. She remembers happier times when he used to enjoy television, comics and making her laugh. And despite her unhappiness with him, kicking him out seems impossible and brings tears to her eyes:
GONZALEZ: People told me throw him out, throw him out. I can’t believe me I can’t because he’s not like other man that comes around he’s like a grown man with the mind of a kid….
REPORTER: The Department for the Aging says cutting programs such as the one that allows Gonzalez to have weekly home visits was a difficult decision to make but given the fiscal situation, the agency decided to preserve the programs that serve the most seniors. Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago says more than 40-thousoand people use senior centers and meals on wheels and neither will be touched – though a restructuring plan could eliminate some centers.
As for the elder abuse programs, Santiago says Adult Protective Services will step in when appropriate and there are other places for seniors to go:
MENDEZ – SANTIAGO: Our own DFTA has the Elderly Crime Victims Resource Center that’s staffed by social workers and can provide professional assistance that these older adults can require.
REPORTER: The center has 5 social workers and the majority of the counseling they do happens over the phone. Also, Mendez-Santiago says the Mayor’s office to Combat Domestic Violence has agreed to consider elder abuse as part of its mission. Plus, he believes other non-profits will help fill the gap.
REPORTER: Social worker Holly Macrae says it will be difficult to say goodbye to Gonzalez. She says this elderly mother’s reluctance to remove her son from her home is common and it’s important to keep monitoring the situation and to keep trying new things. Macrae says it takes a lot for one of her clients to get an order of protection against their adult child. Gonzalez is not at that point but she values Macrae’s visits:
GONZALEZ: I feel comfortable talking my problems to her. She’s very understanding and she try to help and she does help because some people say I’m going to help you and I still waiting.
REPORTER: Macrae says Gonzalez is still very shy about asking for assistance and often leaves silent messages on her answering machine. Gonzalez says that’s because she gets nervous and confused by voice mail.
REPORTER: The non-profits losing their contracts say none of the commissioner’s alternatives will offer the home visits and watchfulness they believe is required to protect hundreds of seniors living precarious lives. For WNYC, I’m Cindy Rodriguez