Elder Abuse Awareness Walk to take place at Dillon Park on Saturday

Respecting your elders should be second nature to everyone, but that isn't the case for some people.

That's why Santee-Lynches Regional Council of Governments is having an Elder Abuse Awareness Walk on Saturday at Dillon Park, 1210 Clara Louise Kellogg Drive in Sumter.

Registration is free and begins at 8:30 a.m., with the walk itself beginning at 9 a.m. The walk will be taking place on Elder Abuse Awareness Day, which was started by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and recognized as an official awareness day by the United Nations General Assembly on June 15, 2006.

"Basically, one in 10 elders suffer abuse, neglect or exploitation," Santee-Lynches Regional Long Term Care Ombudsman Sheila Brooks said. "Abuse can be physical or verbal, neglect is with care, and exploitation is usually financially. When it's actually happening, it can fall on deaf ears when people see a red flag."

Brooks thinks people sometimes don't report elder abuse because they don't know who to report it to.

"If it's in a nursing home or assisted living, you report it to an ombudsman," she said. "If it's in a mental health or special needs facility, you report it to SLED (State Law Enforcement Division). If it's in the community, you report it to Adult Protective Services under the Department of Social Services."

Brooks hopes that the walk and the awareness day will help prevent elder abuse in the future.

"(On Elder Abuse Awareness Day), the whole world offers opposition to the abuse of the older generation," she said. "It needs to be a 365-day, 24/7 action throughout the year, but that's one day set aside for it."

For more information, visit the website of the National Center on Elder Abuse at https://ncea.acl.gov, or contact Brooks by phone at (803) 774-1983 or email at sbrooks@slcog.org.