Adult Protective Services (APS). Senior Citizens. Unscrupulous Business Practices.

At one point in my career, I was the administrative manager that oversaw the Adult Protective Services Unit of Lucas County in Ohio, as well as several other social programs and services.

In the State of Ohio, Adult Protective Services (APS) are social services provided to abused, neglected, or exploited older adults age 60 and older. There are many areas of concern when it comes to the abuse, neglect and exploitation of older adults. As an example, there is a story reported in The Blade that may be read in the article Lucas County unit focuses on protection of elderly by Erica Blake.

Okay, so I would venture to guess that not many people would disagree that older adults (60+) should be helped in situations such as reported in that article.  I imagine most people would agree that our senior citizens should be kept safe from physical or emotional abuse, that neglect of older adults should be prevented, and that seniors should be protected from financial exploitation.

BUT, what about private business people and enterprises that prey on everyone but who especially exploit the vulnerabilities of senior citizens???
Let me give you just a few examples that come to my mind:

• Health and medical insurance companies, ineffective medical equipment devices, and 'health cure' scams, 
• Home improvement companies and their representatives 
• Investment companies, investment advisers, and get rich quick schemes and scams 
• Fake 'help a needy relative' pleas, fake 'overdue bill' collectors, all con artists
• Timeshares and Vacation Plans

Think about it.
Senior citizens do not need

• to be confused and frustrated with all those mumbo-jumbo medical insurance plans 
• or be sold a bill of goods about some miraculous knee brace in place of needed knee surgery 
• or sold some cure-all arthritic pain relief 
• or sold a repaved asphalt driveway that is really just cheap oil coating
• or put their life savings into an investment with a ROI that they will never live long enough to collect 
• or have their hard earned money stolen by a con man 
• or be sold a damn timeshare that has a grossly overly inflated initial purchase price and ridiculously high annual maintenance fees to the point that the person will die long before he and/or she could ever receive a decent return on the money expended.

I really think that persons involved in unscrupulous business practices should not only be brought to justice in the criminal arenas of our jurisprudence system when conducting business illegally, but, when senior citizens are the victims, the offending parties should also be charged with exploitation under APS laws and prosecuted accordingly.