The six local women killed by domestic violence last year ranged in age from Deysi Benitez , 25, to Pamela Hahn , 45.That closely mirrors a stark sentence in the otherwise densely detailed 2006 Uniform Crime Report for Maryland: "Sixty-one percent of the victims of domestic violence are between 25 to 44 years of age, inclusive."
Most women who report such abuse are young, but a growing number of experts, such as Michaele Cohen, executive director of the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence , believe it continues silently into later life.
"I think it's grossly underreported — even more than with younger people," Cohen said.
She believes these victims have many reasons not to report.
"Older people want to hide (abuse). They're going to be ashamed," she said.
Such victims often face health or financial problems and older couples become increasingly interdependent.
"If you're older or disabled, where do you go?" she said.
Getting help
The couple moved to the U.S. speaking no English. They were educated professionals in their home country, but lacking language skills, they struggled in Arizona. Their prestige was gone.
The man took it out on his wife. She told a neighbor, but said she wanted to make things better. She only agreed to move out after he seriously injured her.
The woman ended up in the DOVES Program in Phoenix where she met Kitty Devilbiss, community services manager of the Frederick County Department of Aging.
Like Heartly House in Frederick County, the DOVES Program helps victims of domestic violence with support groups, shelter and other services. But unlike Heartly House, the DOVES Program is limited to victims age 50 and older.
Devilbiss visits senior centers wherever she travels. In Phoenix, the assistant director of the Area Agency on Aging, which manages the program, dropped everything to show her the 19-unit apartment building they had transformed into transitional housing for abuse victims.
The visit opened her eyes and she has focused that awareness on her final project for a Certificate in Aging from Johns Hopkins University, creating educational materials on types of abuse and services offered to older victims.
"The biggest hurdle is getting statistics," she said last month. "The data is just not kept É because it isn't reported, it's clumped in with other issues."
Jumbled numbers
On average, 8.3 reports of abuse were made for every 1,000 people over 60 in the U.S. in 2004, according to a survey by the National Center on Elder Abuse. In Maryland, that number is 4.12 per 1,000.
These reports include caregiver abuse, self-neglect and financial exploitation, as well as family neglect and violence.
Eleven states provided information on the relationship of abuser to victim; 65.4 percent were relatives; of those, 11.3 percent were spouses or intimate partners and 32.6 percent were adult children.
About 2 percent of the people served by Heartly House are 65 or older, according to CEO Barbara Martin.
With seniors, Martin stressed the need to distinguish between domestic abuse and caretaker injuries. A frail person might be accidentally injured by a caregiver.
Heartly House looks for a pattern of ongoing abuse, she said. It could be economic or emotional, as well as physical — a threat to injure a pet or destroy property.
Cohen agreed that later life abuse can take many forms.
She recalled an elderly woman whose adult children had moved in and were manipulating her.
"She didn't want to report them or have them evicted — after all, this is family," Cohen said.
Reaching out
As late life abuse differs from violence against younger victims, so do ways of identifying and addressing it.
Devilbiss hopes to educate older adults and the people who see them most often. She wants to help seniors identify actions that might signal abuse. Those who visit seniors regularly can spot changes in physical appearance or in the home, she said.
"They are going into each other's homes so they are aware ... more aware than (someone) going in once in a while," she said. "Meals on Wheels volunteers are very attuned to what goes on."
Cohen said her organization also aims to train clergy, home health aides and private-practice doctors. Older victims may be unable or unwilling to leave home so helping them requires a more community-based response, she said.
"They don't want to call the police or get a protective order ... The question becomes safety planning and what can we do in terms of the abuser," Cohen said.
She advocates individualized safety planning depending on the victim's abilities.
Martin concured.
"The primary goal is always safety," she said.
If a victim lacks mobility, Heartly House staff will suggest she confide in a trusted person and agree on a code word or phrase to indicate danger. Important papers should be stored someplace safe.
Above all, Cohen stressed, these victims must be allowed to make their own choices.
"Older people can be quite stubborn and resistant to change," she said. "You want to be respectful and not take away their independence."
A place to go
In 1993, Mary Lynn Kasunic, director of the Phoenix Area Agency on Aging, began to study late life domestic abuse. She and a coworker talked to victims and formed support groups.
Kasunic cowrote a play, "The Dance," based on the stories she heard. Demand was so great that in 1998 the play was made into a video.
The video inspired more women to ask for help, she said.
"Everywhere we show it, women say 'Wow. That's my story.'"
They also wanted to know where they could go to escape.
Kasunic's agency asked assisted living facilities if victims could use empty beds for a couple of weeks. They found 30 places, but after two weeks, half the women still had no place to go.
About five years ago, the alliance bought and renovated the apartment building, using city and state grants, as transitional housing.
Residents can stay as long as two years, get job training, save some money and get back on their feet, Kasunic said. They attend support group meetings and work with case managers.
Over the past five years, the DOVES Program has served about 55 people, ages 50 to 83, Kasunic said. On average, they stay 18 months to two years.
Options and hope
Kasunic said she knows of no other shelter that exclusively serves late life domestic abuse victims, but she suggested communities could start smaller, with support groups or donated housing. Most important is getting the word out and encouraging victims to seek help.
Devilbiss agreed.
"It doesn't have to continue," she said. "I want to think there's help and hope."
Kasunic remembered a 53-year-old woman who came to the DOVES Program "pretty beaten up, emotionally and physically."
The woman had received no dental care. She covered her mouth whenever she smiled.
The DOVES Program helped her get her teeth fixed.
She took employment testing and realized she had always wanted to be a truck driver. She started a driving course, Kasunic said, and would get up every morning at 2 a.m. to practice on a track. She was the only woman in the class, but she aced every test.
She is now a long-haul truck driver — very happy — and able to smile.
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