Add Category
Posted
Investigators protecting the financial interests of elderly Queenslanders say nursing homes and the big four banks need to do more to help the state prevent elder abuse.
The state's Public Guardian, Natalie Siegel-Brown, said hundreds of thousands of dollars were being siphoned out of the accounts of elderly people with impaired decision-making capacity.
She said in most cases the victim's adult children were the perpetrators of the financial abuse.
"We're very fortunate in Queensland to have the power to receive allegations from banks about concerning transactions taking place on the accounts of older people," she told ABC Radio Brisbane's Emma Griffiths.
"We also receive allegations of suspected abuse and exploitation from nursing homes where their fees are falling into arrears and they suspect that the person had quite a large pot of money before they came into the nursing home.
"When our investigators go in they find some fairly horrific situations."
Ms Siegel-Brown said an increase in elder abuse awareness led to a 55 per cent increase in requests for her office to investigate.
Disturbingly, she said it was common for a financial investigation to lift the veil on "horrific" physical abuse and neglect as well.
"We have had instances where Mum and Dad are living in a cupboard-like room at the bottom of the house in soiled underpants, severely underweight," she said.
"We saw one instance where the family had gone away and left the gardener to check in on the parent who was effectively locked in a room."
Missing money and 'crazy' transactions
Public Guardian investigator Allyson Lindsay said 80 per cent of the cases her team handled involved elderly Queenslanders over the age of 65.
In one instance she discovered a $230,000 property settlement had disappeared from an elderly client's account.
Her case only came to light after the residential aged care facility she lived in notified the Public Guardian that she was behind on her payments.
"I backtracked with the bank statements to see when the actual proceeds of sale were put into her account," she said.
"You could see straight away significant transfers out of the account of a couple of thousand dollars at a time."
The money had trickled into an account belonging to her Power of Attorney — her adult son.
Ms Lindsay said, in other cases, nursing homes have waited until residents were $26,000 behind in payments before reporting possible foul play.
"The nursing home might be looking to move that adult out because they're breaching their residential aged care agreement," she said.
And once money disappeared from an elderly victim's account, investigators found they were rarely able to recover what was lost.
"If [the Power of Attorney] had a gambling problem or a substance abuse problem and that money has been spent, and they have no assets themselves, it is often difficult to seek reimbursement," Ms Lindsay said.
Faster reporting could reduce harm
Ms Siegel-Brown said losses could be minimised if banks and nursing homes flagged dodgy transactions earlier.
"I think it would make a huge difference if nursing homes didn't wait until they are $50,000 in debt to say to us, 'We think there might be something a bit wrong here'."
"Perhaps wait until they're $5,000 in debt so there's a way we can stop the person's money still being taken and they can retain their place in their facility."
Queensland-based banks, including Bank of Queensland and Suncorp, are already reporting suspicious transactions to the Public Guardian — a function Ms Siegel-Brown has called on the big four banks to adopt.
She said extending the office's power to other states and territories was something policy makers should consider to clamp down on financial, physical and emotional abuse.
"We are the only state which has powers to investigate allegations of suspected abuse, exploitation and neglect of adults with what we call impaired decision-making capacity."
Topics: aged-care, banking, brisbane-4000