The Associated Press

In 1978, the House of Representative’s Select Committee on Aging, chaired by Claude Pepper (Foundation), conducted the first Congressional examination of elder abuse in the United States resulting in a 1981 report entitled, “Elder Abuse: An Examination of a Hidden Problem.”

In 1985, the committee published its report, Elder Abuse: A National Disgrace, noting:

“Although the majority of States have enacted elder abuse statutes since 1981, the Congress has not reciprocated in similar fashion… States are hard pressed to address this horrifying domestic disgrace and the Congress should act immediately to assist the States in preventing, identifying and assisting our Nation’s elder abuse victims.”

In 1987, prompted in part by a year-long investigation nationwide by The Associated Press, Congressman Claude Pepper next trained his laser focus on problems in the guardianship system, which he addressed in a hearing and companion report titled Abuses in Guardianship of the Elderly and Infirm: A National Disgrace, held by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Aging. As chair, Pepper expressed in his introduction:

“The typical ward has fewer rights than the typical convicted felon… By appointing a guardian, the court entrusts to someone else the power to choose where they will live, what medical treatment they will get and, in rare cases, when they will die. In one short sentence, it is the most punitive civil penalty that can be levied against an American citizen, with the exception…of the death penalty.”

Testimony was provided by primary victims, experts, and members of The Associated Press, who noted:

• “The AP found that America’s elderly who are being placed under guardianship are losing their civil rights with little or no evidence of necessity, sometimes with just a quick pen stroke, and the courts charged with following their lives are often failing at the task.” (Ahearn)

• “In our look at these [2,200] case files we found that 44 percent of those facing guardianship were unrepresented, they had no attorneys to represent them in the court; in fact, nearly 50 percent of them were not at the hearings to determine whether they were competent or not.” (Ahearn)

• “Thirty-four percent of the cases we found there was no medical evidence in the court files to show whether or not this person was competent.” (Ahearn)

• “We also saw cases where questionable spending, and misspending, had been routinely approved by judges.” (Ahearn)

• “We found, Mr. Chairman, that once a guardianship file was open, often the court completely lost track of both the paperwork and the person.” (McCartney)

• “We found the court systems overtaxed, understaffed, underfunded and often at a loss to explain missing reports and empty files. We also heard predictions about the future of an already ailing system faced with a growing elderly population.” (Ahearn)

Fred Bayles launched The Associated Press investigation with two articles:

• Guardians of the Elderly: An Ailing System Part I: Declared ‘Legally Dead’ by a Troubled System (September 19, 1987)

• Guardians of the Elderly: An Ailing System Part II: Many Elderly Never Get Their Day in Court (September 20, 1987)

In summary, Lisa Nerenberg, executive director of the California Elder Justice Coalition and author of Elder Justice, Ageism, and Elder Abuse, notes:

“The media has played a major role in highlighting guardianship problems and abuses, going back to a scathing exposé by the Associated Press, Guardianship: Few Safeguards, which examined 2,200 randomly selected guardianship court files and concluded that the guardianship system was ‘a dangerously burdened and troubled system that regularly puts elderly lives in the hands of others with little or no evidence of necessity, then fails to guard against abuse, theft and neglect’ [2019, 33; U.S. H.R. 1987, 15].”

After the hearing, the American Bar Association (ABA) launched a new program in response to the AP series — WINGS, the Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholder. Dari Pogach of ABA chronicles:

“A groundbreaking 1987 Associated Press (AP) series triggered modern guardianship reform, contending that ‘overworked and understaffed court systems frequently break down, abandoning those incapable of caring for themselves’”

Following the AP report, three landmark multidisciplinary consensus conferences served as an engine driving needed reform. (American Bar Association; August 26, 2020)

Today, The Associated Press continues to focus on issues of elder abuse. In a 2023 article titled “In nursing homes, impoverished live final days on pennies” (March 15, 2023), AP reporter Matt Sedensky, Aging [and National] Writer, provided a buttress for AARP Texas in its tweet:

“…urging the Texas Legislature to increase the personal needs allowance for nursing home and assisted living residents. @AARPTX supports #HB54 [Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities], as well as state budget proposals to increase the allowance.” (Twitter, March 16, 2023)

Let’s not be ageist about the decades-old 1981, 1985, and 1987 Congressional hearings and reports. They remain relevant and vital. Except now, guardianship abuse and exploitation are worse due to demographics, increased longevity, persitent ageism, the vast fortune of our wealth (trillions of dollars, personally saved and through earned entitlements)—and through omission, commission, and collusion conducted by state courts.

More recently, “Exposés in a growing number of states have disclosed the experiences of individuals and families in a system that does not serve them well and may result in exploitation or harmful isolation — and that too casually removes rights without proper accountability,” notes the American Bar Association Commission on Aging in a WINGS Briefing Paper. (2020, 8)