Growing Risk to America's Seniors: Themselves

State and local government agencies warn that U.S. seniors are increasingly unable to care for themselves, which can lead to serious health problems as well as death, reports the Wall Street Journal . For example, seniors who no longer drive often cannot make medical appointments, worsening health problems that compound self-neglect. Falls also can cause injuries that leave older adults bedridden, while failure to pay bills for utilities could lead to service terminations. Forgetting rental payments could result in eviction. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that self-neglect cases in 2018 involved 144,296 people across the United States, constituting more than 50 percent of reports of alleged senior abuse or neglect investigated by adult protective services. Many senior health professionals expect such cases to continue to increase as the older population ages and more seniors live alone. Illness, dementia, depression, and poverty are just some of the reasons why seniors stop looking after themselves.