The plight of former radio personality Casey Kasem highlights the dilemma of this country’s fast growing elderly population as they reach the stage of their lives when they may no longer fend for themselves.

In case you’ve missed the recent lurid headlines, Kasem, the quintessential disk jockey known for his long-running American Top 40 radio show, has been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a condition with symptoms akin to Parkinson’s. Among other disabilities, he can no longer speak, a cruel irony for a man whose rich tones dominated the nation’s air waves for three decades.

Kasem’s second wife, former actress Jean Kasem, is estranged from the three adult children of his first marriage. The children, who have accused Jean of not properly caring for Kasem and of isolating them from their father, have been locked in a year-long legal battle with her.

In a new twist two weeks ago, a Los Angeles judge granted Kasem’s daughter conservatorship (a type of guardianship) over her father and ordered a probe into his whereabouts after he was reporting missing. Later the same week, Kasem and his wife were discovered staying at a private residence in Washington state, where Jean claimed they were on “vacation visiting lifelong friends.”

It’s easy to dismiss this as the stuff of Hollywood melodrama and supermarket tabloids.

Tabloid publicity aside, however, physical and psychological abuse and financial exploitation of the elderly is all too common in Main Street America. And it’s not confined to an occasional scandal relating to abuse of residents in a poorly run nursing home.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging, as of 2010 the population 65 years or older numbered more than 40 million and represented a three-fold increase, as a percentage of the total population, compared to 1900. Of that cohort, approximately 55 percent lived with a spouse, 29 percent alone, and 4 percent in an institutional setting. Maine is among the states with the high concentration of older people, approaching 16 percent of the population.

Lucky seniors have devoted spouses, children, family members, companions or professional care givers to look after them. Many are not so lucky. Unfortunately not all families resemble the clan of the nostalgic television series The Waltons.

There’s something about the prospect of getting something for nothing that brings out the worst in people, particularly in dysfunctional families. Sibling rivalries and feuds, grudges held by children against their parents, triangulation between biological children and their step-parents, and just plain greed can fuel mistreatment and theft.

Typically the plot goes something like this: Frailty, dementia, illness or accident robs the elderly person of the essential mental or physical faculties necessary for independent decision-making and action. The older person is forced to rely upon a care provider for such basic day-to-day needs as groceries, rides to medical appointments and companionship, becoming increasingly dependent on the provider. The provider, if unscrupulous, gradually isolates that person from contact with others and gains more and more influence over his or her decisions. The provider ultimately misappropriates the person’s money and property or influences the person to change his or her will in favor of the provider.

In Maine, there are some remedies available to victims after the fact. A guardianship or conservatorship can be sought from a county Probate Court to protect the person and property of the elderly person. The State of Maine’s Adult Protective Services investigates complaints of elder abuse and arranges for services for incapacitated or dependent adults at risk. After the elderly person’s death, interested parties can go to Probate Court to challenge the validity of a will that the person was forced to sign under duress or undue influence.

It’s better, however, to minimize the risk of these situations by heading them off before incapacity arrives through careful estate and financial planning, binding legal directives (such as a durable power of attorney or living will), advance selection of a care provider, and consultations between parents and their adult children.

Advance planning can ease a senior’s final years and avert the shattering of family ties by bitterness that carries beyond the grave.

Elliott L. Epstein, a local attorney, is the founder of Museum L-A and author of “Lucifer’s Child,” a book about the notorious 1984 child murder of Angela Palmer. He is currently a candidate for Androscoggin County Judge of Probate. He may be reached at epsteinel@yahoo.com.