Keeping up with the myriad innovations in elder justice and abuse prevention can be a formidable task given the wealth of creativity and energy that abounds in the field. The National Elder Justice Advocates Academy will help by posting information on new and promising interventions, tools, policies and programs. We need your help. Let us know what you're doing that you think others should know about. Send us a message on our Contact Us page.

Policies

Model Elder Financial Exploitation Statute Released
The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) has model statutory language, along with explanations, that states can use to strengthen protections against elder abuse. The model provisions were created with support from the Huguette Clark Family Fund for Protection of Elders. It is available on NCVC’s website at Model Elder Financial Abuse Prevention Statutes. 

Interventions

Psychotherapy for Victims Improves Mental Health/Elder Abuse Outcomes
Researchers at the Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry conducted a study and pilot program that showed that a new problem-solving therapy significantly improved mental health and elder abuse outcomes for victims of emotional, financial, and/or physical abuse. The 8-session intervention combines problem-solving with anxiety management techniques and offers education about the effect of depressive and anxious symptoms. It further instructs patients on problem identification and solving, and managing associated depressive symptoms. The study is described in a posting on the NYC Elder Abuse Center’s blog: Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Benefits Depressed Elder Abuse Victims. 

Weinberg Center’s Elder Abuse Shelter Program
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale received the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime’s Crime Victims’ Service Award for its elder abuse shelter. A short video about the shelter program can be viewed here.

IDCARE
This non-profit support agency provides comprehensive services to victims of identity theft, phishing, telephone scams, romance scams, investment scams and other forms of mass marketing fraud using a client centered approach. Although it serves Australian and New Zealand, it is a model that holds promise for communities around the world.   

Tools

Guidance on Privacy Laws and Reporting Financial Abuse
The Philadelphia Corporation on Aging and the National Adult Protective Services Association collaborated to produce the the National Guidelines to Implement the 2013 Federal Interagency Guidance on Privacy Laws and Reporting Financial Abuse of Older Adults along with the Official Request for Customer Records. The Guidelines can be used by APS personnel to request records from financial institutions when conducting financial abuse investigations. The guidelines were developed under a grant from the Huguette Clark Family Fund for Protection of Elders with the assistance of steering committee members comprising APS leaders and representatives from financial institutions and government agencies. For more on the tool, including samples of how the Guidelines have been implemented in various states and a webinar on how it is being implemented across the US and samples of how it has been customized is available on NAPSA's website.