Last week, the MacArthur foundation announced this year’s winners of their $500,000 grants (commonly known as their “genius grants”). One of the recipients, Marie-Therese Connolly, is a lawyer who has devoted her life to combating elder abuse and neglect.
A graduate of Northeastern University School of Law right here in Boston, Connolly was working in the Department of Justice in the late 1990s when a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation uncovered abuses of patients at many nursing homes nationwide. In response, President Clinton directed the DOJ to create what became known as the Elder Justice and Nursing Home Initiative and Connolly was put in charge.
In an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, Connolly said she hopes the award will bring greater attention to the plight of the abused elderly. Connolly stated that 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 60 is the victim of abuse or neglect. Among elderly with dementia, the rate of abuse is even higher. A staggering forty-seven percent of elderly with dementia suffer abuse. And only about one in twenty-five incidents of elder abuse is reported or investigated.
Congratulations to Connolly on this great honor. Advocates against elder abuse and neglect have made a lot of progress in the past decade but much remains to be done.

This blog in maintained by the Boston nursing home abuse lawyers at The Law Office of Alan H. Crede, P.C.