Area women helped stop elder abuse

Three local women are scheduled to be honored today at a banquet in Keizer for helping to protect senior citizens from crime, physical abuse and other dangers.

Patricia Coke of Corvallis, Helen Davidson of Bellfountain and Cynthia Janes of Corvallis will receive recognition from the Oregon Everyday Heroes Campaign, which was created in 2005 by the Governor's Commission on Senior Services.

"It's neat there's a group trying to expose this problem in society," said Coke, whose mother has been the victim of theft three times while living in assisted living facilities. "It's much more rampant than anybody believes. … You look around and you wonder, 'How many people have had it happen to them?'"

The campaign, which includes numerous government agencies as partners, tries to increase public awareness and reporting of elder abuse.

"The biggest abuse situation is financial abuse," said Marilyn Hinds of Philomath, president of the Oregon Everyday Heroes Campaign.

Although elder abuse is one of the fastest-growing crime categories in the United States, mainly because of the growing senior population, Hinds said the crimes often are ignored.

"I don't think people think about it. They're not aware," she said.

Coke said that families often are humiliated or embarrassed, especially with financial crimes.

The National Center on Elder Abuse estimated that only one out of every five or six cases is reported. Yet the number of reported cases is substantial.

In 2007, the Oregon Adult Protective Services investigated more than 12,900 cases of elder abuse.

Davidson was a victim of elder abuse this year. On Sept. 19, she received a frantic phone call from a man she believed to be her grandson. She wired him $5,300, purportedly to get him out of jail. She learned two days later that she'd been scammed.

The Bellfountain resident agreed to be interviewed by the Gazette-Times regarding the crime, and that helped prevent two other people from falling prey to con artists, according to the Oregon Everyday Heroes Campaign.

"I've been made a fool of, but your getting the story on the front page did stop some others," Davidson said. The newspaper article led to other media accounts, including television reports.

Last winter, Coke's unofficial investigation led police to arrest a worker who was stealing from residents at Stoneybrook Assisted Living in Corvallis. Coke's mother had $25,000 in jewelry taken from her, so Coke, a Corvallis retiree, turned detective. She visited pawn shops in Corvallis, Albany and Lebanon to help police track down the jewelry.

Cynthia Janes is the manager of the meal site and Meals on Wheels program at the Corvallis Senior Center. She is being honored for keeping seniors safe in communities. Janes keeps tabs on seniors above and beyond the call of duty. She watches out for those who are increasingly frail, disabled or at risk of abuse.

"She takes that extra step to contact their family members, to advise them of what they are seeing," Hinds said. "She does that because she cares about seniors and their welfare."

This year, 15 people and one bank are receiving the "Everyday Hero" recognition, which will be presented by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers.

Kyle Odegard can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.