Culver to join Capitol event raising elder abuse awareness

Older adults are often harmed by the people closest to them, and that warning landed with particular force for Union County, where 20.5% of residents were 65 or older in the July 1, 2025 population estimate. State Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver joined Journey to Justice at the Pennsylvania State Capitol’s Main Rotunda in Harrisburg for an elder abuse awareness event timed ahead of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15.

The annual observance, launched in 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization and recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in 2011, is meant to draw attention to a problem that is often hidden in plain sight. The United Nations says elder abuse can involve physical, psychological or emotional, sexual and financial abuse, along with neglect. It also cites a 2017 estimate that 15.7% of people age 60 and older experienced abuse in the previous year, while only 1 in 24 cases was reported.

That underreporting is what makes the issue so difficult for families, caregivers and local agencies to catch early. In Union County, where the population was estimated at 42,313, abuse can surface through bruises, broken bones, weight loss, increased confusion, unusual withdrawals from an account or a sudden transfer of property, including signing over a home to another person. The warning signs matter because abuse is often carried out by trusted caregivers, making it both harder to detect and more damaging when it does happen.

Journey to Justice was founded in 2023 by Lynn Fielder after she learned that her mother and 16 other patients were being abused by staff at a personal care facility. A local report identified the setting as Heritage Springs Memory Care near Lewisburg, and said the abuse included nude photos and videos posted to Snapchat by two teenage healthcare workers. That history has made the nonprofit a visible voice in education and advocacy around elder abuse, neglect, exploitation and abandonment.

Pennsylvania’s response system is built around the Older Adults Protective Services Act, Act 79 of 1987, and the state says it contracts with 52 local Area Agencies on Aging across all 67 counties. The Department of Aging says suspected abuse can be reported anonymously for older adults living at home or in a care facility, and the statewide Elder Abuse Helpline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-800-490-8505. The agencies must make face-to-face visits within 24 hours for emergency or priority reports and within 20 days for other reports of need.

The Capitol event put Culver in the middle of a push for better reporting, stronger caregiver training and more resources for older Pennsylvanians. In a county with a large senior population and a close-knit health care network, those protections can mean the difference between isolation and intervention.