PROJECT ABSTRACT

The proposed project will attempt to study the changes, if any, in signatures to protect the legal rights of elderly and ailing in different stages of disease, on and off medications. It is this study's hypothesis that the degradation of the ability to write one's signature creates a high risk situation for that individual for the crimes of Elder Abuse, Forgery, and Fraud. It is this study's contention that Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Dementia cause rapid decline in these abilities and therefore are the focus of this study. Signature Samples will be taken from several identified groups in two phases of study:

1) An 8-12 month study comparing signatures of participants in 4 groups before administration of medication and 60-90 minutes after administration of medication, and

2) A 2 year study comparing the signatures of these same identified groups over the two year period. The groups will consist of a healthy aging control group, an Alzheimer's group, a Parkinson's group, and a Dementia group.

This study will attempt to identify consistent changes in the signatures/handwriting of each group directly related to the medical conditions of each group and also in comparison to the healthy aging group. From these identifications, this study will attempt to map trends in decay of handwriting and signature ability that are directly correlated to the specified neurological disease as opposed to the decay of those same abilities related to the normal aging process. From these trends, this study will attempt to create benchmarks for handwriting decline (which correlates to observable and demonstrable neurological decline) related to each disease, which will lay the groundwork for the protection of these groups in several areas:

1) Legal Protections for these groups Civil Rights, Legal properties, and abilities to make self-guiding choices stemming from identification of deficits in current laws and remediation through legislative process, and

2) Physical and Medical protections stemming from identification of deficits in healthcare guidelines and remediation through newly discovered and mapped benchmarks and trends in each medical condition.

All findings, statistics, and conclusions of this study will be put into book format and disseminated to judicial, legislative, medical and senior organizations on the local and national level.

For more information on senior exploitation, call Kathy Carlson.