Question: Can you tell me more about granny dumping? Is this a big problem?
Answer: Recent media coverage has focused attention on elder abandonment, also called granny dumping. Attention to the issue was heightened last year when John Kingery, an elderly nursing-home resident with Alzheimer's disease, was found at a race track in a neighboring state, having been abandoned there.The American College of Emergency Physicians describes elder abandonment as those situations "when an elderly patient is brought to an emergency department and cannot be discharged because the family or caregiver refuses to take the patient back or has left and cannot be located, or the institution from which the patient came refuses to readmit the patient." Older patients who live alone and turn to emergency departments for assistance are also included in the ACEP definition.
Few studies have been conducted on the subject of elder abandonment, and there are no figures on granny dumping in public places. The ACEP surveyed 900 leaders in emergency medicine but, because only 178 physicians completed the questionnaire, the results cannot be generalized.
Nevertheless, the survey findings show some parallels to other research on elder-abuse. According to the ACEP survey answers, most of the abandoned patients seen by emergency physicians live alone and can no longer take care of themselves. Likewise, most cases reported to elder-abuse hotlines concern people who can no longer take care of themselves, called self-neglect cases.
Does granny dumping and abandonment occur? Yes, but the incidence is probably not high. Further study is needed. Expanded services for those families who are unable to care for an elderly relative are also needed.
Question: My wife and I are in our late 50s and recently decided to buy a condominium for our retirement. We own our home and thought now would be a good time to buy a condo because of the low interest rates. The bank we were trying to get a loan from, however, turned us down because of a bad credit rating. We were shocked. The credit company had made an error four years ago that is still on our record. We are still trying to get the matter straightened out. How can seniors protect themselves in this kind of situation?
Answer: Anyone who has ever had a loan or used a credit card has a credit history. There are more than 1,2OO members of Associated Credit Bureaus Inc., a nationwide association of credit bureaus, which can access your credit history.
Credit reports include how much money you owe and whether you pay your bills in a timely fashion. Banks use credit reports to decide on mortgage and other loan applications. Credit-report errors, as you now know, can have a significant negative effect on your rating and can take a long time to be cleared up.
Financial planners recommend you perform your own credit check every two to three years or before you plan a major purchase such as a home or automobile. Under federal law, you have a right to see what is in your credit file. When you get a copy, it is important to check that your record is current and contains no errors. If you find your report contains errors or omissions, you have a legal right to get the material corrected at no further charge to you. It becomes very important to have copies of your records for documentation in supporting your case.
According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the credit bureau must investigate your problem in a reasonable period of time. They must delete any information that they cannot verify and correct any inaccurate information. If this still does not satisfactorily resolve your problem, you are allowed to write a statement of up to 100 words and this will be included as a permanent part of your credit file.
Negative credit data stays on your credit report for seven years, and bankruptcies remain on your report for 10 years. UCLA's Dr. Jodi Cohn, who studies consumer decisionmaking, warns that if you have had trouble with your credit rating, you should be wary of "credit repair companies." "If you have a bad credit history," she says, "no one can change that for you."
Send questions about growing older to On Aging, P.O. Box 84256, Los Angeles, CA 90073. Questions of general interest will be answered in the column; individual answers cannot be provided.
1992 Washington Post Writers Group