Granny Dumping

　　I first met the word "Granny Dumping" when I read one of the popular detective series, "The 87th Precinct" by Ed Mcbain about 7 years ago. Granny means elderly woman. Dumping is abandoning. That is to say "abandoning elders".
　　In the story, an old woman in a wheelchair is left behind in front of the entrance of the emergency hospital. She suffers from Alzheimer's disease and doesn't remember even her own name. She has nothing to show her identity. Even a tag of her underwear was cut off. That is obviously an intentional abandoning.
　　When I was a Washington correspondent, I asked about the realities of Granny Dumping to my physician, Dr. Wilkinson, who worked for the medical center of George Town University.
　　"Abandoning elders is one of the serious cases of elder abuse. However, hardly any individual case can be disclosed, for it's always backed up by complicated circumstances," he said with a frown.
　　There is an obvious tendency that more women are abandoned than men. That is why it's called Granny Dumping. This word appears in the Random House Webster's College Dictionary now.
　　According to the National Elder Abuse Incidence Study, 450,000 elder abuse cases were reported in 1996, in which 65-year-old and over elders were involved. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) estimates that there are over 70,000 cases of granny dumping a year.
　　"90% of the abusers are family members. But the abused hardly claim, because they fear backlash or losing family ties. Besides, dementia patients..." said Dr. Wilkinson.
　　Actually the granny dumping is an extremely complex problem to which we can find no simple solution. In the U.S. employing aides at home full-time for a dementia patient can cost $100,000 a year. That amount is not affordable for the middle class family with the average income. In addition, Medicare can hardly work in this situation. However, approximately 4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease with dementia.
　　A senator testified at the Upper House, "The children who can't afford the expense of proper care for their parents might take them into another state and abandon them. That is shame on America."
　　In Japan 1.5 million elders have dementia, and 2.75 million will have in the coming 20 years. The Japanese government started "Long-term Care Insurance" one year ago to cope with the difficult problem of increasing dementia elders. The granny dumping in America can bring a good lesson to us.