By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Ralph Oneal is supposed to be enjoying his retirement now.
After 20 years as a Phoenix city policeman, followed by 10 years as a California Highway patrolman, Oneal and his wife, Maria, decided that Southeast Louisiana was the perfect place to retire.
“We had visited here many times and loved the area with all your music and food,” he said. “When we considered retirement, we wanted to live somewhere that was more reasonable financially, so the North Shore was just right.”
But something happened on the way to soaking up the sunshine on a beach somewhere, or traveling across this great country of ours.
Shortly after arriving on the North Shore in 2003, Oneal was asked to help a new organization forming in St. Tammany Parish called SALT—Seniors and Law Enforcement Together.
Oneal is now the driving force for the group, which will host the 7th annual Elder Abuse Seminar for Monday, June 10 at Northshore Harbor Center in Slidell, from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. There will be three different seminars that offer continuing education credits for nurses, social workers, counselors and attorneys. Early registration with lower fees ends on Monday, May 27. For more information or to sign up, go online to stsalt.org, call 985-809-5455 or e-mail weaad@stsalt.org.
Oneal’s 30 years as a police officer, plus his technological knowledge, made him a perfect fit for SALT, and in less than a year, he was not only volunteering with the group, but promoted to chairman.
SALT “picks up where law enforcement leaves off,” Oneal explained, acknowledging the fact many people in St. Tammany are still learning what his group is all about.
SALT’s main goal is to provide for the safety and security of St. Tammany Seniors, linked to a national non-profit organization in name only, and left to develop their own local programs that help senior citizens get support in key areas such as fraud or elder financial scams, evacuation plans and notification for natural disasters, cell phones for seniors that can only call 911, and various forms of security where they live.
“Elder Abuse needs a lot more attention,” Oneal said. “One in 10 seniors is the victim of elder abuse, but only 4 percent of those cases ever gets reported.”
He said many seniors are afraid to report elder abuse since the perpetrators are usually family members or friends of the senior citizen, and the elderly person usually needs that person in their life.
“When you begin to understand how many of these issues tie back to what is called elder abuse, you wonder, ‘where is the outrage for this against our seniors?’ That’s why I have suddenly gotten so interested to do this,” he said.
Oneal took over the leadership of the St. Tammany SALT group and has found a better way to reach many parish seniors, rather than one at a time.
“We now hold an annual Elder Abuse Seminar that is geared for professionals who serve seniors,” he said. “This is a way to reach more people since each of the ones who come to our seminar is probably in touch with dozens and dozens of seniors.”
Oneal started seven years ago with the first Elder Abuse Seminar in St. Tammany, and now holds it in June each year, linking it to World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. He additionally has found a way to draw larger and larger crowds by making the seminar an opportunity for professionals to get continuing education credits, simply by attending the elder abuse classes.
“The number one concern for seniors is to be safe,” Oneal said he learned from studies and surveys. “That’s what we focus on in everything we do, along with many ways they are victims of financial scams or exploitation.”
In seven years, SALT has achieved some admirable goals, starting with a Senior Evacuation Notification System (SENS) that is now linked to the parish ALERT system. Once a senior signs up with the system, they will get phone notification of any parish evacuation plans, along with a follow up call that checks to see which seniors stayed, and which ones left.
“That helps law enforcement know who they need to check on,” Oneal said.
To also help in that situation, SALT started a program in 2006 called Cell Phones for Seniors, seeking donations of old cells phones that were refurbished and programed to only take a 911 call. They have handed out over 700 of the phones since starting.
Also among the most important topics for seniors is I.D. theft, plus many ways they are the victims of financial exploitation—frequently coming from caretakers who are family members or friends. SALT played a key role in getting Western Union to greatly upgrade their work towards halting the fraud, since some of the scams involve someone calling and getting a senior to wire money through such companies.
“There is one called the Granny Scam, where a person calls a senior and says, ‘your grandson is in jail and needs money.’ If the person has a grandson, they frequently offer to wire money to supposedly get their grandson out of jail,” Oneal explained. “When we showed Western Union how serious a scam it is, they became a leader in halting it, and even gave back $62 million in nine months to people who had lost their money.”
Along the lines of security, SALT began a program that gives seniors flashing light bulbs for their porch, which are activated if you flip your switch twice in a row. It alerts law enforcement that there is a problem in the home. They also give out peepholes that have a 160 degree viewing range.
“There is more of a need for our work than many people realize,” Oneal said. “And while we are getting very well known in the country for the professional speakers we have brought in, this problem falls through the cracks locally for different agencies. We want seniors to understand how many things can constitute elder abuse, so we’re trying to educate the caregivers and professionals, so they can offer more help for our seniors.”
SALT continues to seek funding help for its all-volunteer group of only 20 staff members. If you would like to become a supporter of the group, contact Oneal at 809-5455.