Three years after addressing the topic of parents beating their kids, Quincy flipped the script for the twelveth episode of the fifth season and addressed kids beating their parents. The topic of elder abuse, however, gets muddied as the writers send Quincy on a quest to learn more about the subject and introduce a second plot about two spinsters who are being starved to death and robbed by a nephew who is so transparently evil that calling his character one-dimensional is attributing it too much depth.

But thing really go off the rails when they lose focus and attempt to tackle the subject of growing old and feeling unwanted and unneeded in general by shoehorning in a tertiary plot based no doubt on some human interest article one of them read about a program that brings together elderly people and abused children and the benefits to both. It is dense with statistics and specific details and introduces new characters, one of whom makes it into more than one scene. It goes like this:

The woman who serves as Quincy's expert on elderly abuse and aging runs a home where elderly people come hang out during the day and do arts and crafts and teach some of their skills in guitar making to abused kids. She wants the county to hire elderly people to staff at least some of its new community center for abused children, but they aren't going to do so because the county has an "old people are worthless and feeble" policy. Also, a guy brings his daughter to the house because her mom smacks her around while he's a work and the girl meets an old lady who helps mend her doll and the old lady gives the mom some motherly advice and agrees to come stay with the girl and her sister while the mom and dad go on vacation because that will stop the mom from being abusive and the county guy witnesses this and decides to hire elderly people for 20% of the staff.

That is longer than the description of most full episodes and yet I was able to remove all traces of it from the edit below and not affect the story arc.

You may recognize Mr. Coogan as "Blue" from Old School or the rich husband of Jennifer Coolidge who likes soup in Best of Show or from any number of the more than 100 roles he's played in movies and TV shows, all of which were old men. Patrick Crenshaw first played a character called "Grandpa" in a 1970 episode of "Green Acres" titled "The Picnic." Through his death in 2005 (and the release of his final movie Air Buddies in 2006), he played such varied roles as:
Old Man
The Old Man
Grandpa
Gramps
Old Man
Grandpa
Ancient Sorter
Old Man
Elderly Man
Old Man
Old Man
Pappy
Old Man
Man Dying in Elevator
Old Man
Codger
Old Gentleman
Old Man
Pop
Old Bail Boy
Old Man
Old Man
Miles Hollings in the "Monk" episode "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man"

Mock if you wish, but how many actors can work steadily for 35 years (and he worked for years before that, just not in roles where the character's name is a clear indicator that he's extremely old), much less consistently playing "probably won't be alive much longer?"

Also, what's the deal with the birthday party at the end? That seems to be the Quincy writers' room go to denouement scene. "How do we wrap this up? We need an excuse to get people together in a room where they can all discuss the outcome of the subplot endeavors and get a happy ending."
"Birthday party!"
"We've given no indication that anyone's birthday is coming up. And why would the family of a man who committed suicide because his son beat him attend the birthday party of a woman they've never met whose nephew was stealing from her. And why would the detectives and Quincy's co-workers be there?"
"Birthday party!"