8/11/21
#older #adults and COVID-19 changed the landscape of elder abuse. AARP says 95% of those who died from Covid-19 were over 65. (see cover story of the HEALTH SECTION, 4/2021) Got the picture?
There's really bad new for seniors....seniors now and in the future according to some of the largest humanitarian and health organizations in the world by the year 2050, will have 330,000,000 victims of elder abuse and exploitation.
While I was adding a bit of current information to an update of Paradise Costs-A Victim's Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse I read the above and felt sick. I'll be honest, reading and working with #ParadiseCosts sickens me. It was a horrible time for my family and I am a forward thinking person.
Finding out what's new from the large groups across the world is a huge downer. I understand the planet is over crowded, I know that seniors are abused by the systems we are all guided by...everyone is...however, seniors are the most vulnerable. And, they also own much of the wealth in the country. Get the picture?
I'll also confess to having a serious issue myself getting a much needed medical test done. Because of the rules, it became an obstacle course that hindered my life tremendously. Because I have a medical office background, I managed but not without weeks....almost 2 months...of waiting for the test and, wow, I suffered in pain.
What bothers me so about this? What about those #older #adults who don't have a medical office background? That's why I am in this to begin with...my father died because greedy savages took over his life and I was helpless to help him though I valiantly tried, risking my life to no avail. They got my dad and on August 25th he will be dead 20 years.
The Elder Justice Act passed, but we have miles to go before we sleep, seniors....330 million victims by 2050 and the Elder Justice PASSED? My God! That means those people who are 15 now will be at risk by 2050. Our kids are potential victims to what we and our leaders can't or won't stop. Elder abuse is systemic like racism. We have a Facebook page up called, President Biden: SENIOR LIVES MATTER with all due respect to our Black brothers and sisters. This hate, discrimination, exploitation must be stopped.
I am sickened by the hate, greed, manipulation and exploitation. Its bad for my health, its bad for everyone's health.
Here's a version of a press release that will be issues shortly and when its issued the very latest version of Paradise Costs-A Victim's Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse will be available at Amazon. We had to add a few tid-bits, sickening information, but necessary information:
Press
Release
Release of Book Warns of Increasing Dangers of
COVID-19 and Elder Abuse Across the Globe
Driven by startling,
grim statistics from international humanitarian and advocacy groups
including the world’s most prestigious
medical journal, The Lancet, elder abuse and exploitation across the world will
be “growing to 330 million victims by 2050. The
findings of this study strengthen the case for global action” demonstrates a victim's daughter as she offers her
father's suspicious forensic report to readers to exemplify a terrifying
reality. Created in a work-book format, Paradise
Costs—A Victim's Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse, is a frightening personal narrative calling
attention to what may be a predicted global holocaust.
New
York City (August 8, 2021)— In
a frightening true story, deception, corruption, exploitation and manipulation
collide in Paradise
Costs: A Victim's Daughter Fights Back Against Elder Abuse, the
heart-wrenching story of an infirm, 80-year-old man with Alzheimer's who was
taken from his family, stripped of his assets and exploited despite the pleas
of his next of kin.
What
makes the narrative more compelling now than it was in 2007 when the book was
released? Many global humanitarian and health organizations are reporting
issues across the planet today that are more
horrifying than ever due to the harbinger of COVID-19 and its death toll.
Currently, elder abuse is recognized as human
rights and public health issues by the United Nations, the World Health
Organization, National Institutes of Health, the American Civil Liberties
Union and Britain’s The Lancet, the world’s oldest and most famous medical journal. Furthermore,
the abuse and exploitation of elders are understood to be systemic issues in
many organizations including governments and their agencies, as well as public
and private institutions and corporations across the world. The
Lancet stated in 2017, elder abuse and exploitation will be
“growing to 330,000,000 victims by 2050” with “[t]he findings of
[their] study strengthen the case for global action….”
For the author of this book, the daughter of Mario
Masiello, a hearing-impaired, honorably discharged, World War II veteran
retired from the New York City Transit Authority, it started innocently enough as it does for hundreds
of thousands of seniors and #olderadults seeking a lower cost of living and
warmer weather. Her parents relocated to the small town of Walterboro, South
Carolina to realize his life-long dream of utopian living. Twenty years later,
her father’s blissful life was shattered and ravaged by the death of his wife
and by several illnesses including diabetes, Alzheimer's and depression. Paradise
Costs tells the bone-chilling story of the last years of his
life when he was "grandpa-napped" from his family by neighbors and
"friends."
No longer a unique story, millions are and will be
victims of this type abuse, exploitation and worse. Now in conjunction with
some of the largest humanitarian groups in the world it’s a common occurrence
and millions of seniors will be denied their human rights and robbed of their
right to life.
"I never thought this type of betrayal and brutality would happen to my
family," says Irene A. Masiello, Paradise Costs author and Mario's daughter.
"My experience has made me realize how little people know about the deadly
American pandemic that predates COVID-19. One-in-six seniors have been victims
of elder exploitation and elder abuse for decades."
Recently, learning of this monumental uptick spelled
out by international humanitarian and health organizations, Masiello, drained
and exhausted from this grueling and tragic journey, the loss of her younger
brother to Vietnam, and the death of her dad yet concerned about millions of
#older #adults across the world, vowed to do the best she could to awaken
others to the risks of an impending cataclysmic world tragedy.
The American Psychological Association for a decade or more had estimated
approximately 2.1 million senior citizens are victims of physical and
psychological neglect and abuse every year. However, the numbers have been
grossly misleading for too many cases go unreported while most are unaware or
under-informed of elder abuse's broader definitions. Several world-wide organizations are offering a glimmer of awareness
however mass media hasn’t given this story the attention it deserves in
reporting to #olderadults a shocking impending reality. However, COVID-19’s
deadly ramifications were announced on AARP
Magazine’s “Health” section cover in April, 2021’s story, “95 Percent of Americans Killed by COVID-19
Were 50 or Older."
Masiello urges, “Brace your selves, that’s just a
harbinger.”
Meanwhile, too many older adults remain in
denial, have distaste for bad news and bury their heads in the sand hoping to
escape catastrophic events at a time in their life when they want to be
enjoying their sunset years. It was to that end this book was quickly reworked
to get facts, danger signals, red flags, definitions and imperative information
to readers in hopes of avoiding what is experienced everyday by hundreds of
thousands or more senior citizens.
Ms. Masiello states, “My brother and myself are not
observers, we’re participants and we care. My brother ran into a burning plan
in Vietnam and rescued five crewmembers; he received high military honors and
an early grave that doesn’t belong to my family. Interlopers own it for good reason; an
exhumation of my dad could prove very bad news for them.” And I won’t stand
back and allow millions to die like my father did without attempting to arm
them with life saving information. l refuse to stand-by for a holocaust.”
In this gripping personal narrative the author gives a voice to countless
victims who suffer and die in silence while the staggering issues paint a
gruesome picture. Driven by more bleak statistics from national elder advocacy
groups in the past, present and future stating its predicted that an additional
330 million cases of elder exploitation, Irene shares her family's story. In a
bold stance, she drives home the pervasiveness of elder abuse, neglect and
exploitation by offering her father's suspicious forensic report to readers to
exemplify a terrifying reality. Even more important, she offers a viable
solution to the problem that allows every American to be pro-active in helping
to eradicate this social ill.
"As difficult as the aftermath of this tragedy has been, I am determined
not to let my father's death be in vain," states Irene. "My goal now
is to take my story to the nation again and raise awareness of this deplorable
social ill that's plaguing America and the world. Information is power, we’ve
got it in this book—we want people empowered and aware.”
Irene's objective is to provide a voice to the millions of victims that fall
through the cracks every year. As readers accompany the Masiello family along
their horrific journey they can't help but recognize and call for legislation
that could prevent their own families from being victimized by this
fast-growing phenomenon. "It's robbing our seniors of their dignity,
treatment, proper nourishment and their right to life while causing pain and
hardship for their loved ones."
"I'm urging participation via our interactive book to lobby legislators to
amend the Elder Justice Act [EJA] to address the adjusted victim count alarming
the humanitarian groups across the world” says the author. "Hopefully,
others can be spared the suffering my father was forced to endure and their
families will not have to look on helplessly in horror as mine did."
Masiello is urging global reform addressing elder issues and continued support
to implement and amend human rights specifically protecting seniors by
correcting public health issues now and understanding that elder abuse and
exploitation are crimes. She’s urging
voters to pay close attention to political candidates who specifically make
elder care issues part of their campaigns and “Vote for them like your life
depends on it—it does!”
Irene also advises dysfunctional families, a huge
risk factor for seniors, to get the help they need. She urges abusive and
damaging patterns not be imposed on helpless, exploitable, aging victims who
are at great risk. She warns families containing a substance abuser to
understand elders are at special risk, “Don’t let grandpa be an easy hit to
someone supporting a habit.”
Paradise
Costs-A Victim’s Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse
also contains an afterword written by the author of “Suicide-by-Cop,”
internationally known forensic and geriatric psychiatrist Bennett Blum, MD. In
40-pages of simplified, easy to understand definitions and explanations of
medical jargon and concepts, etc., Dr. Blum cautions readers a first sign that
elder abuse may be taking place is “isolation” of #olderadults away from
friends and family with less accessibility to visits, calls and outings.
Also, Dr. Blum’s afterword is a primer answering readers’ questions regarding normal
aging vs. impaired cognition, types of dementia pointing out 20% of the
dementias are treatable, what is cognitive decline, what about wandering, stages
of Alzheimer’s, diminished capacity, does your senior need a doctor, lawyer or
both and much more.
Both Masiello and Blum remind the public and, especially, #olderadults and their families
that elder abuse and exploitation are crimes. Call 911.
