Kathy Greenlee listens as Mitzi McFatrich, CEO of Kansas Advocates for Care, introduces her as the organization's annual Caring Award. Greenlee has returned to her home state after stepping down in June as U.S. Assistant Secretary for Aging.

Kathy Greenlee has returned to Kansas and stepped down from her job as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Aging, but her advocacy will remain constant.

“I’m an advocate at heart,” she said. “It’s the first time in 20 years I haven’t been in government. Advocacy as a private citizen is a little different.”

In June, Greenlee resigned the federal position, which made her the third-ranking federal official on aging issues behind only President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Silvia Burwell. She had been in the position since 2009, when she followed former Kansas Governor and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to the nation’s capital. Greenlee had formerly served for three years under Sebelius as secretary of the Kansas Department on Aging, which is now the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.

At a Sunday gathering at Maceli’s Banquet Hall, 1031 New Hampshire St., the Kansas Advocates for Better Care honored Greenlee with its Caring Award. At an informal meeting with the press before the ceremony, Greenlee said one concern on which she intended to stay vocal was prevention of elder abuse. It is a topic she proudly noted Obama became the first president to publicly address after she spoke to him about the issue at their first meeting.

“People need to know elder abuse is rampant,” Greenlee said. “One in every 10 elders will be physically abused, and 1-in-5 will be financially exploited. We have 10,000 people turning 65 years of age every day. That means 1,000 of them are at risk of abuse.”

The two biggest risks factors for elderly abuse are dementia and social isolation, and, thus, a key to prevention is to ensure seniors maintain community connections, Greenlee said. Community solutions required multi-agency responses, involving law enforcement and public and private service agencies, she said.

“I used to think no one knew about it,” she said. “Actually, it’s just the opposite. Everyone knows about it. The problem is how to get together and make a collaborative response.”?

There has been little discussion about senior issues in the current election cycle beyond Social Security and Medicare, Greenlee said. The two entitlement programs are “macro-issues” that so dominate the political landscape there is little time for discussion of what caregivers and seniors need, she said.

To train public policy focus on elderly issues, seniors need to give voice to their concerns to elected representatives at venues available to them, from Topeka to local forums, Greenlee said.

“We need to engage the elderly to speak up about what they need,” she said. “I think the hardest thing to do is have people come talk about how they are failing. They need to say, ‘This is the help I need.'”

Greenlee will soon have a new platform from which to speak on aging issues. She said she has accepted a position of vice president of aging and health services with the Center for Practical Bioethics. Among the topics she will address with the Kansas City, Mo., nonprofit are end-of-life issues, a discussion Greenlee said needed to be “more robust.” More conversation is needed on end-of-life planning, palliative care, advanced illness and its associated pain, she said.

Greenlee said end-of-life discussions and policy has to be mindful of the different views and objectives of the terminally ill, who demand the right to end medical treatment, and those with disabilities, who fear the cutoff of treatment.