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Combat Elder Law Abuses in Your Community (“Do try these at home!”)

In preparation for World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (June 15th), we are sharing some program highlights from the Archstone Foundation Elder Abuse & Neglect Initiative that were shared with us via newsletter. Our hope is that these programs, which are setup to be duplicated, will spread throughout Southern California and finally start to tackle some of these elder abuse issues we fight every day. Thank you for reading these and for passing them along.

Senior Center Protection Plan, by the Fair Lending Project for Seniors

Fighting scams at senior centers takes a multidisciplinary team effort that is comprehensive instead of piecemeal.  Our project develops a county-wide awareness campaign about financial exploitation occurring in senior centers and a step-by-step plan that cities can use to protect seniors from harm.  A coalition of senior center directors, the District Attorney’s Office, local legal services agencies, city policy planners, private bar, senior advisory boards, and real estate and life insurance professionals works together to accomplish our goals.

Initial Considerations and First Steps: (MS Word)

www.centeronelderabuse.org/files/ElderAbuseinHomeLendingProtection.doc

Sample Materials:

Contact person for more information:

Name: Shawna Reeves

E-mail: sreeves@scccoa.org

Telephone: 408-350-3229

Establishing an Elder Abuse & Neglect Screening Protocol in a Dental Teaching Clinic, by University of California, Los Angeles, School of Dentistry

This UCLA School of Dentistry project focuses on developing a screening tool and reporting protocol for pre-doctoral dental students to use while working in the dental clinic. The screening tool, tailored for use in a dental teaching clinic, is also appropriate for use in private practice. Given that dentists are mandated reporters, there is a strong reason to adopt this screening tool and protocol in dental teaching clinics throughout California.

Initial Considerations and First Steps: (MS Word)

www.centeronelderabuse.org/files/from _Classroom_to _Clinic_UCLA.doc

Sample Materials:

Contact person for more information:

Name: Melanie Gironda, Ph.D.

E-mail: mgironda@ucla.edu

Telephone: 310-825-6544

Unlicensed Facility Fact Sheet and Screening Tool by WISE and Healthy Aging Long-Term Care Ombudsman

Not only do residents in unlicensed facilities not have access to regulations that have been designed to preserve their rights in licensed facilities, they are also more susceptible to abuse and neglect.  This fact sheet and screening tool allows for quick identification of unlicensed care facilities, and referral information to those agencies that handle complaints in these settings.  The tool is designed for and has been distributed to many organizations and agencies including but not limited to:  IHSS workers, APS, ombudsmen, fire fighters, police officers, building and safety staff, regional planning, regional centers, hospital social workers, and department of mental health patients’ rights advocates.

Initial Considerations and First Steps: (MS Word)

www.centeronelderabuse.org/files/Unlicensed_Facility_Screening_WISE.doc

Sample Materials:

Unlicensed Facility Factsheet and Screening Tool (MS Word)

www.centeronelderabuse.org/files/Unlicensed_Facility_Factsheet.doc

Contact person for more information:

Name:  Molly Davies

E-mail:  mdavies@wiseandhealthyaging.org

Telephone: 310-394-9871 ext 431

Creating an Elder Abuse Forensic Center, by University of California, Irvine, Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse and Neglect and the Orange County Elder Abuse Forensic Center

Typically, an elder abuse case requires weeks to months of phone calls among agencies with very distinct, and at times conflicting, perspectives and goals.  Recognizing disconnections between the many disciplines that address elder abuse, the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Program in Geriatrics and agencies from social services and the criminal justice system piloted a groundbreaking approach to this problem: the nation’s first Elder Abuse Forensic Center (EAFC) in 2003.  EAFC members meet regularly to determine concrete actions that can be taken on behalf of the client agency (e.g., Adult Protective Services, Long-Term-Care Ombudsman, Law Enforcement) to address the needs of a specific case.  Members use their expertise and agency resources to provide direct help with the case.

Since the Orange County Elder Abuse Forensic Center was established, we have been approached by other communities interested in starting their own Elder Abuse Forensic Centers and assisted in the creation of two new EAFCs.  Based on these experiences, we created a Manual and 20-minute companion DVD to describe how an Elder Abuse Forensic Center (EAFC) works and to help agencies develop a preliminary structure to create an EAFC in their own communities.  Download the Creating an EAFC flyer (pdf) for more information and to order copies.

Sample Materials:

Contact person for more information:

Name:  Kerry Burnight, Ph.D.

E-mail:  burnight@uci.edu

Telephone: 714-825-3087

Compiled by the Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse & Neglect at the University of California, Irvine Program in Geriatrics

Thank you so much for compiling and sharing this terrific information! We hope all our readers will share these links and get some of these programs going in your area!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 9:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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