The fastest growing part of California’s population consists of people who have passed their 80th birthday.

That number alone should tip us off that our society is operating under a different dynamic than pertained even ten years ago. For one thing, those people who have succeeded in reaching their 80s are, nationwide, abused and neglected at two or three times their proportion of the elderly population.

In 1994, the county’s Adult Protection Services received 874 calls concerning suspected elder abuse. In 2003, APS received 1,607 such calls - a 10-year increase of nearly 100 percent. Bear in mind, also, that according to a (U.S.) House Select Committee on Aging report issued in 1994, only one in 14 cases of elder abuse is actually reported to the authorities.

If we assume that each of the 1,607 calls to the APS in 2003 represents some kind of ill-treatment - even if falling below the legal threshold of elder abuse - then we would be justified in suggesting that there were in excess of 20,000 instances of elder abuse last year in this county alone. (Brian Carroll, of the County’s Adult and Aging Network, says that those working in this area are still using the one-in-14 ratio as a general rule). The National Aging Resource Center on Elder Abuse estimated in 1999 that almost a quarter of a million Californians are victims of elder and dependent adult abuse every year.

Unfortunately, the federal government has yet to standardize a legal definition of what constitutes abuse of a senior citizen, but most of the individual states have done so, including California.

According to Laurie LaSage, a Victim Advocate specializing in elder abuse in the County District Attorney’s office, there are four main divisions of the statutory definition of abuse: physical abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, and neglect - including isolation and abandonment. Last year, said Brian Carroll, the most common (frequent) kind of elder abuse was financial, including credit card fraud, forgery, or telemarketing fraud (which is another subject). If the physical abuse should rise above the felony assault level, in terms of injuries, then the advanced age of the victim adds an additional penalty on the sentence of the convicted perpetrator.

There are, moreover, two distinct categories of victim: if the victim is over 65, then the crime constitutes elder abuse; if the victim is a person 18-64 who is disabled or cannot otherwise care for him/herself, then it is called Dependent Adult Abuse. In 2004, 39 percent of the calls to Adult Protection Services concerned dependent adult abuse.

Such numbers are alarming, especially when we consider that the reported cases represent such a small fraction of the actual problem. And, perhaps worst of all, the National Aging Resource Center estimates that more than two-thirds of all abusers are family members. Then there is the fact that a large majority of the victims of elder abuse are women over 75 years old.

Yet the near epidemic of Elder and Dependent Adult abuse has scarcely begun to impinge on the consciousness of American society. Child Abuse and Spousal Abuse have much higher profiles, and much larger support networks for the victims. A recent poll conducted by the California Department of Justice found that only 10 percent of those polled consider elder and dependent abuse to be a serious social concern. Only 11 percent, moreover, felt that the signs of elder abuse were easy to recognize, while more than 70 percent said they have never known an elder or dependent who was a victim of abuse.

Some of the problem’s recent, if belated, recognition may be due to the fact that the first wave of the post-World War II baby boom is nearing retirement age. About to become elders themselves, they have naturally become sensitized to the potential of age to bring problems with it.

Laurie LaSage says that her office provided services to 372 seniors between May 1, 2004 and April 30, 2005, and prosecuted 43 cases. This is up from last year, but is still barely scratching the surface.

Anyone wishing to report a suspected abuse of an elder or dependent adult has a range of agencies to contact. You may call the Santa Barbara offices of the California Adult Protective Services - part of the Department of Social Services - at (805) 692-4011, or any branch of local law enforcement, sheriffs or city police, or, if the suspected victim is institutionalized or under long term care, then the office to call is the Long Term Care Ombudsman at (805) 967-0499.