As her father's dementia worsened, he also lost bladder and bowel control, and it became harder for her to care for her father. As a result her tolerance level for him and his condition decreased. But she knew that if he went into a nursing home or an assisted-living facility where he would get 24-hour professional care, she would lose her father's pension checks. Her solution: she tied her father onto the toilet and kept him there for several days at a time until he was so dehydrated and sick that he was dying.

What can we do as a society to curb the current social problem of elder abuse? According to Elizabeth Podnieks, vice president of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, "The first step is education. We need to get to the point where everybody knows what elder abuse is and is aware that it exists. The more we talk about it, the more real it becomes and the more people are shocked by it, and then the more committed we are going to be as a society to do something about it."

Eliminating elder abuse will take a commitment on the part of people everywhere to take responsibility for their thoughts and actions. In order to eliminate this growing current social issue problem, we need to be each other's keeper.

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