1ひと人り暮くらしの認知症にんちしょう高齢者こうれいしゃ 特殊とくしゅ詐欺さぎなどの被害ひがい状況じょうきょうを国くにが調査ちょうさ

A national research team conducted a survey targeting care managers at home care support offices in Tokyo, and found that nearly 40% of the offices that responded reported having dementia clients living alone who had either fallen victim to or avoided special fraud in the past year.

According to a national research team, it is estimated that this year there are over 2.5 million elderly people with dementia or its precursor, MCI mild cognitive impairment, living alone, and this number is expected to increase to 3.49 million by 2050.

Elderly people with dementia have impaired judgment and are more susceptible to harm, and since they often have difficulty recognizing when they have been victimized, it is easy for detection and response to be delayed. It is said that those who live alone are at particularly high risk.

Amid these circumstances, a national research team conducted a survey to clarify the actual situation of consumer harm suffered by elderly people with dementia living alone due to special fraud, aggressive door-to-door sales and renovation scams, and other inappropriate transactions.

The survey was conducted from October to November last year, targeting care managers at 3,711 offices in Tokyo that provide home care support and other services. Responses were received from 1,296 offices, which accounts for 35%.

According to this, in the past year, 21 elderly people with dementia living alone have experienced being victimized by special fraud such as phone scams and fictitious billing.

Representative of the research group, Shuichi Awata, Director of the Tokyo Center for Dementia Care Research and Training, said, This is the first large-scale survey, but we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg, as we cannot grasp the damage situation of elderly people with dementia living alone who are not connected to care facilities.

The countermeasures are an urgent issue, and it is necessary to build connections, such as having someone visit regularly so that damage can be noticed quickly, he said.

I was diagnosed with mild dementia three years ago.

She says that last October, she was able to avoid falling victim to a phone scam.

A woman received a phone call at home from someone claiming to be from NTT, telling her, Your phone bill is overdue, so please pay it immediately.

I almost believed it was a real phone call, but then I remembered that my phone bill is automatically withdrawn from my bank account.

Furthermore, it came to mind that I had previously seen a TV program warning about similar scam phone calls, so I decided to call the police for advice.

Detectives from the Community Safety Division of the nearest police station immediately visited the house and informed them that there had been many similar special fraud phone calls in the area, which helped prevent any damage.

The woman said, The voice on the phone sounded just like a real operator, so I almost got tricked, but since I knew about similar cases beforehand, I was able to avoid becoming a victim.

When I become forgetful and start to lose confidence, I feel like I might end up believing someone just because they speak kindly to me.

I want to continue learning from examples and, if I feel uneasy, consult the police or city hall so that I dont become a victim, they said.

She uses home-visit nursing care once a month, and the visiting nurse shows her a leaflet warning about consumer harm, through which she also learns about recent cases of fraud and similar incidents.

Nurse Kadoya Kanaho from Carepro Home-Visit Nursing Station Tokyo says, I have the impression that there are countless people who seem a little at risk.

We are more aware of the risks now, and we are also collecting information about the recent increase in incidents and sharing it with the staff.

If you fall victim to fraud, it can affect your family relationships and both your physical and mental health, so I want to emphasize the importance of providing information before any damage occurs, they said.

Expert: “Meaningful connections that lead to social support are important.” Shuichi Awata, head of the research group and director of the Tokyo Center for Dementia Care Research and Training, commented on the results of this survey: “I had a sense that elderly people with dementia living alone were likely to be targeted for consumer harm, but I was surprised to see data clearly showing that there is this much damage.”

This investigation should be considered just the tip of the iceberg. There are many people living alone with dementia in the community, and it’s possible that they are facing crises. We need more people to be aware of this, and the entire community must think about how to protect them.

On top of that, an important point to avoid becoming a victim is having regular connections with people like helpers, friends, or care managers who come to visit you. Such human relationships are extremely important for preventing harm at the earliest stage.

People with dementia often withdraw into their homes on their own, losing connections with others. Those with dementia who live alone and have no visitors are at a particularly high risk of becoming victims.

In order to prevent harm, what is most important is to regularly meet and build meaningful connections that can lead to social support in times of need, and we should consider policies that promote this.

Furthermore, in some municipalities, monitoring networks have been established in which local consumer affairs centers, welfare personnel, and the police work together to monitor and prevent consumer harm to people whose judgment may be impaired, such as those with dementia.

It is not uncommon for gullible people to be targeted repeatedly with different tricks, so it is necessary to have monitoring measures in place on the network to prevent them from becoming victims, he pointed out.

And, It is necessary to share the actual situation of the damage throughout society via media such as television and newspapers in order to prevent further harm.

We would like to further analyze and categorize cases where damage was avoided, and use the findings to help prevent future incidents, they said.