MIDLAND, Texas — July is Elder Abuse Awareness Month.
Elder abuse can often arise from various factors like family violence history, lifestyle changes and tensions due to new living situations. Elder abuse doesn’t all look the same.
“What we want to also relate to the community is it's not always about physical abuse, it's about exploitation, it's about neglect, many times it's self-neglect,” said Tracy Renton, director of development for Senior Life Midland.
According to the American Psychological Association, signs people can look out for when interacting with seniors are things like unexplained injuries, a dismissive attitude about the injuries, they seem overly fearful or suspicious, lack of basic hygiene and necessities, and unusual bank account activity.
Senior Life Midland partners with Meals On Wheels to deliver meals to seniors and to help prevent elder abuse. They say these volunteer deliveries also serve as wellness checks.
“Through Senior Life Midland and our Meals On Wheels program, we're able to identify situations where maybe a senior is in a difficult situation, there is self-neglect or there is exploitation going on," Renton said. "We are able to identify those things our agency can follow up and then direct to the appropriate authorities to get our seniors some help.”
If someone feels a senior is being abused, contact Adult Protective Services with those concerns.