Insurance Fraud and Elder Abuse

A famous mystery writer in America had targeted the problems of insurance fraud and elder abuse in one of her newest novels:

• T Is For Trespass by Sue Grafton. G.P. Putnam's Sons (2007), a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. in New York.

Author Sue Grafton is famous for her "Alphabet Mysteries." She is also well known for hitting social problems in her writing and she does so very well in T Is For Trespass. The more people that read this novel, the more lives may be saved in the future.

This 20^th installment in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries is every bit as good as my favorite, B Is for Burglar. It is an exciting story that targets topics that are particularly pertinent to today's headlines news and national criminal scene. These topics include adult and child predation, identity theft, insurance fraud, and elder abuse.

T is for Trespass is all about the violations of human rights and personal safety, illustrating the concept of TRESPASS in a number of ways. When finished turning over the last page of this crime novel, you may want to change their locks, just as all the major players in the story did.

You may be afraid to turn out the lights at night after reading this one, but you will be fully aware of the healthcare and criminal justice system reform issues that face America today. Sue Grafton has written a topnotch novel that is both useful and entertaining, raising national concern as well. Each of her Alphabet Mysteries does so to a greater degree as she continues to provide them to readers.

One of the hallmarks of some perpetrators and most abusers is that they twist a criminal event around until it persuades people to believe that the crime happened to the perpetrator, rather than to the actual victims. These evildoers are just are as cunning as alcoholism or substance abuse and, in fact, these problems and other severe mental disorders are often involved in their crimes as well.

Verbally manipulating events and witnesses in order to penalize an already punished crime victim is a double curse and a trespass just as sinister as rape.

Have you ever had a Restraining Order issued against you before you could get to Police Headquarters to file one against a stalker? It happens more often than you might think.

Have you ever, as a teacher or a medical practitioner, followed your Duty to Report child abuse to Children's Services and been contacted by the police that they did not want to do the paper work and would charge you with false reporting to stop you if you tried again to report?

Not only do all these things occur in T is for Trespass, but they also happen to my colleagues.

Sue Grafton's 20th novel in this series is pertinent and right on target with the operations of the nightmares of verbal, physical, psychological, sexual, and financial abuse.

Have you ever known a mother that refused medical and mental health care for a developmentally disabled child and then verbally and physically abused that child for almost 40 years?

Sometimes we hear in the news of a healthcare worker such as a nurse, medical assistant, doctor, or technician that has been psychologically impaired and murdered several terminally ill or elderly patients in a clinical setting,. He or she claims to have been saving these unfortunate people them from the world of pain and despair.

At other times, we hear about home health aides and live-in companions that steal the possessions and finances of their elderly clients. Some of these latter individuals fake healthcare credentials in order to gain physical/medical control of their clients and aid them out of the world. with unnecessary treatments. Not only is it all in the book, but it is all in real life.

How about convicted offenders against children that do not register their addresses after they leave prison? Even castration cannot “cure” some of these individuals – if anything can cure them at all – and children are in constant danger from them. In addition, what about the ones that are never caught in the first place?

The world of human predators and victims is a horrific, murky, strangling realm of madness.

When it comes to choosing a home based care provider for an invalided or elderly relative, a full background check with fingerprints and photo ID confirmation – even full hand prints as are available today – are a necessity. Despite the tightening of security procedures all around in government and business operations nationwide, criminals still find ways to falsify or steal identification, educational credentials, and professional licenses.

Have you ever known a senior citizen or disabled individual that was held captive in his or her own home by a live-in companion? It certainly happens.

Receptionists and entry level healthcare workers in some companies are not trained to refuse to give out personal information about staff and clients. In some organizations, the person at the front desk simply reads everything off to you without asking for your own identification or a search warrant – home phone, address, cell phone, pay rate, appointments, children's names and schools, etc.

Receptionists, even when trained, must take the responsibility to say, “No.”

I had the opportunity to control a front desk training program and supervise health and education receptionists for a time as I trained new office, classroom, and management staff over a couple of years. I found that former receptionists had given out any information that anyone wanted to know, because

1. They had never been trained not to do so and
2. They were afraid to say NO!

With proper training and a long input of time, effort, and follow-up, this dangerous situation finally ended. The lives of staff, clients, vendors, friends, neighbors, and families can all be protected with the common-sense policy of not giving out personal information.

A child abused early on or any time may never recover, not even with therapy and not always with miracles.

The aftermath of abuse is a deep-rooted leviathan. Sometimes the monster goes underground, but it eventually surfaces, sometimes not until middle age, and then everyone “wonders what happened to him (or her)” or "Where did that monster come from?" For other children, behavior deteriorates immediately and becomes worse year by year, because adults do not recognize it or do nothing to help the child, until the sufferer dies a violent death or commits a crime - even murder - and is imprisoned.

Not only do the issues of sex predation, elder abuse, health fraud, and false prosecution need more focus in America, but greater numbers of peoples could stand up and take responsibility for recognizing them, reporting them, and following through on criminal charges. Imagine being on the receiving end of these crimes.

Recommended Reading

Besides tackling these national issues in a dynamic way, Sue Grafton offers a set of characters that grab the readers' attention, from the criminals to the lively senior citizens that still work well into their late 80s. I know of few other places, fictional or true, in which a 40-something woman is best friends with half a dozen men and woman in their late 70s to early 90s. It really shows what value all age groups still have in American society.

The development of the character and back-story of Kinsey Millhone, PI continues even in the 20^thinstallment in this series. It's all fascinating and contains a lot of information that we can use in our daily interactions with others. Using the setting of Southern California in the 1980s allows us to make interesting comparisons with how things would be handled in the 2000s – a little like TV's Life on Mars. In addition, this book should be required reading in all the helping-professions training programs nationwide.

Although Ms. Grafton is nearing the end of the alphabet in her series, I hope the stories don't end with Z, which puts Kinsey at about only age 43. She still has many years to go – about 40+ more, if she's anything like her friends.

Respectfully submitted,

Patty Inglish