Sex-abuse cases may lead to law changes

The bizarre and chilling reports of physical and sexual abuse against nursing homes residents in Albert Lea and Montevideo, Minn., may be rare, but some experts and victims' families are poised to ask the Legislature for additional safeguards.

Even those calling for change, however, disagree about the extent of the problem -- and some are fending off what they fear might be draconian proposals for change, such as installing "granny cams" in nursing home rooms and requiring prosecutors to charge abusers with felonies.

"Are people in Minnesota nursing homes safe? I would say most of them are safe -- at least safe from abuse," said Mary Birchard, executive director of the Alzheimer's Association in Minnesota.

But the head of an advocacy group warned that "nobody in a Minnesota nursing home is safe from abuse."

"Some homes do better than others at setting the standard for care, but elder abuse can and does happen anywhere," said Mark Wandersee, executive director of the ElderCare Rights Alliance.

They are among leaders of 51 government and nonprofit agencies, including the Minnesota Board on Aging and the attorney general, that will ask the 2009 Legislature to tighten state laws protecting aged and disabled people.

The group began drafting proposals long before reports of the two abuse cases splashed across the nation.

Among their proposals: standardize reporting and investigating maltreatment of frail aged or disabled people; create a statewide hot line to replace 87 county phone numbers for reporting those cases, and develop a system similar to the Amber Alert to mobilize public response to a missing vulnerable adult.

"The recent cases really illustrate why we need to do a better job," Birchard said.

Abuse in private homes

While there are more reports of abuse, it's not clear that it is widespread among Minnesota's 398 nursing homes.

Reports to the state Health Department of abuse in nursing homes rose 7 percent last year, from 574 to 614. The state substantiated 68 cases.

But reports of abuse in private homes and other community settings appear to be soaring.

Through October, county vulnerable adult hot lines took in 4,395 reports of abuse in the community. That's up 66 percent from 2,650 abuse calls in all of 2007, though up only 21 percent from 3,629 calls in 2006.

Since the state Department of Human Services collects data about the number of calls -- but not how they are resolved -- only officials in each county know how much abuse actually is proven, said David Brown, a department spokesman.

"But those numbers are a little squishy," he said. "It's hard to compare year to year because some counties don't submit reports, even though they're supposed to." In addition, some of the community complaints likely were about abuse in nursing homes, so may have been counted by both the Health and Human Services departments.

Still, this year's figures may be more accurate than previously because the state now requires counties to report electronically, Brown said.

Under the spotlight

In the Albert Lea case, six young female aides apparently entertained themselves over five months early this year by poking and groping residents' genitals, sticking fingers in their mouths and noses, and taunting them until they screamed.

In Montevideo, the Health Department reported this month that for five months one aide abused six residents, five with dementia. It said she stuck a finger in the cancerous vulva of one resident until she screamed, tossed on the floor stuffed toys that another resident thought were her children and gave lap dances to two male residents, baring her breasts to at least one as she prepared him for bed.

The cases were unusual in the number of victims and, in Albert Lea, the number of victimizers. In both cases, there was no question that abuse occurred. The aides were fired. But county attorneys differed over whether there were crimes they could prosecute.

In Albert Lea, two aides face gross misdemeanor charges for abuse, while four are charged in juvenile court for not reporting suspected abuse, as required by law. In Montevideo, the county attorney did not prosecute because investigators said the aide denied the abuse and the victims did not cooperate or mentally were unable to be questioned.

"I've got questions about both those decisions," Wandersee said. "Should they be felony crimes? Should you assume someone with dementia can't tell you what happened? But I'm not a prosecutor."

"Let's standardize investigative procedures, let's increase training," he said. "Abuse is a big problem. But let's think a little more broadly than granny cams and telling prosecutors how to prosecute."

Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253