Impact for Elder Justice

At the final session of each of the World Elder Abuse

Awareness Day Summits, presenters and attendees came

together to create an annual action plan, nationally and

internationally.

Promoting and creating elder justice requires multidisciplinary participation from all at the local,

state, and national levels. This field generated action plan reflects input from financial services

providers, adult protective services professionals, researchers, advocates, and others

committed to preventing and addressing elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

We need your support and contribution to create an impact for elder justice.

● Promote development and support for the elder justice and the adult protective services

fields.

o Develop a National Adult Protective Services Resource Center providing research,

technical assistance, and support for adult protective services practice and

collaboration. NAPSA did have the resource center before it was moved to WRMA

(National APS Technical Assistance Resource Center). We continue to be their

partners.

o Support adult protective services programs in utilizing the Voluntary Consensus

Guidelines for State APS Systems developed by the Administration for Community

Living.

▪ Completed

o Expand training opportunities for adult protective services and related fields (mental

health, first responders, domestic violence and sexual assault services, aging

network, disability community, etc.) on abuse, neglect, self-neglect, and exploitation.

▪ completed. Highlighting new NAPSA’s National APS Training Center

funded by Administration for Community Living, with comprehensive

e-learning for APS and professionals and has almost 3,000 registrants.

o Promote implementation, support, and expansion of the National Adult Maltreatment

Reporting System (NAMRS).
▪ Completed, administered by Administration for Community Living, all

states participate, NAPSA was critical in getting full participation from all

states.

o Encourage implementation and advancement of multi-disciplinary teams including

case review teams, financial exploitation prevention teams, fatality review teams, and

others.

▪ Completed.

● Promote and support research and analysis in elder justice and financial exploitation.

o Support analysis of financial exploitation data (such as publicly available Suspicious

Activity Report statistics) to understand gaps in knowledge and areas that need

attention.

▪ Completed, NAPSA’s elder financial exploitation summit, had speakers on

this topic

o Develop and support a national study regarding the costs of elder abuse, neglect,

self-neglect, and financial exploitation including costs to the individual and family,

costs to governmental programs including Medicare and Medicaid, and indirect costs

(such as emotional/psychological, morbidity, and mortality).

▪ Not completed, NPASA provided recommendations to GAO.

● Engage financial institutions in detecting and preventing elder abuse and exploitation.

o Clarify and notify all banks that under federal law (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) banks

may share client bank records without a subpoena for the purposes of conducting an

authorized civil investigation (including adult protective services) and/or for

preventing actual or potential fraud.

▪ Completed, the forms and related documents are continuing to be utilized

and discussed.

o Develop and disseminate model state legislation stating adult protective services

authority to obtain bank records without a subpoena.

▪ In the process with FEAB workgroup

● Promote national and international awareness of elder abuse and exploitation among

professionals and the public. Continue creating World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on

June 15 annually.

o Promote June as “Elder Abuse Awareness Month.”

o Incorporate elder justice into the Older Americans Month theme.