"Crack is the biggest one. I can't tell you how many cases the perpetrator is a crack addict," said Lisa Rader, elder victim advocate for the Dane County Area Agency on Aging.

Substance abuse is the most frequently cited risk factor associated with elder abuse and neglect, according to the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse in Washington, D.C.

Troubled adult children and grandchildren with drug problems often come in and out of elders' lives and homes, experts say, inflicting physical, emotional and financial abuse.

"It does sort of take over your life," said one 64-year-old Dane County mother who has lived through it.

She and her 81-year-old husband have suffered for years because a daughter from the woman's first marriage became addicted to crack.

For the parents, fallout from addiction created emotional stress and undermined dreams for their golden years. The daughter stole their money and jewelry, exposed them to dangerous gang members and turned a home they bought for her into a drug house.

"Every time she was in jail, we got some relief," the mother said.

The daughter, 43, now considers herself in recovery from addiction. She and her mother, fearing gang members the daughter used to know, told their story on the condition they not be named.

After her release from jail in the summer of 2005, the daughter stayed sober for awhile but couldn't get a job and again fell to her addiction. Desperate for money, she forged a signature on a $250 check from her mother and $300 from her grandmother, who was in a nursing home.

Finally, "My mom had me arrested," the daughter said.

Her grandmother died while she was serving her 14-month prison sentence for the forged checks. "I never got a chance to apologize," she said.

The daughter said she has been clean and sober since getting released, and she is working and living on her own. Her goal is to finally honor her aging parents. "They haven't been able to be proud of me, ever."

Her mother is hopeful but holds no illusions. "I feel like I have my daughter back. I am a person who will never give up. I'll fight it to the end. I don't know anything different."