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### **Serving the Needs of the Older Adult Community:Ways to Handle Elder Abuse Calls**

May 2020 | Volume 13 | Issue 5

Every day more and more law enforcement personnel are  being called out on suspected cases of elder abuse and neglect. Elder abuse can  be physical, sexual, emotional, or financial. Caregivers on the scene may be  bystanders, witnesses, or—all too often—perpetrators. And, all too, often,  first responders cut short their interview with the elderly victim in order to  focus on caregivers and younger family members. Various stereotypes of older  adults play into this tendency—law enforcement responders may assume that the  elderly won’t remember the facts or are unreliable witnesses, or may dismiss  elder abuse as a family or a civil matter. 

##### *Introducing the EAGLE Website*

The Elder Abuse Guide  for Law Enforcement is a new tool from the U.S. Department of Justice’s  Elder Justice Initiative:
              - Developed with grant funding,  and available for use at no cost 
              - Hosted on a  secure server 
              - Viewable on standard web  browsers on devices of any size 
              - Available for  download to any tablet or smartphone 
              - Information delivered  in a manner that law enforcement can quickly access and use in the field or to  self-educate 
              - Links to  resources for providing victims with additional assistance: 
              Elder Justice Locator results 
State statutes and mandated reporting regulations 

 The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the problem of elder  abuse. Social isolation is a major risk factor for becoming a victim—even when  isolation is necessary to safeguard against infection. Older adults need to  stay physically distant, but it is important to help them stay socially  connected through the telephone and internet. Phone reassurance programs and  COVID-19 helplines are proving to be of great assistance during this crisis. 

 Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the U.S. Department  of Justice (DOJ) has been investigating elder abuse, and has released resources  to provide guidance in how to handle these situations. These resources are  available through the website of the DOJ’s Elder Justice Initiative (EJI) or through the Elder Resources heading on the COPS Office Training Portal.

 One of the tools the EJI  developed is the Elder Abuse Guide for  Law Enforcement (EAGLE) website, which is now available for your use. A  team of  experts from the University of  Southern California, University of California – Irvine, University of  California – Davis School of Gerontology, and Kim D’Amico Consulting have  delivered a user-friendly set of tools that guides and aids first responding  law enforcement (LE) officers in identifying victims of all forms of elder  abuse (physical, sexual, financial, emotional) and neglect. EAGLE will also  guide LE through the collection of data necessary to document cases for  prosecution and enable LE to provide victims with appropriate local resources  to help with long-term management of the situation. If you would like receive  updates concerning elder abuse issues, please sign up for the EAGLE  newsletter.

 The EAGLE team has also  developed in-person or web-based trainings to further your experience in using  the site. Information on trainings is available at the Elder Abuse Guide for Law Enforcement website. 

 So much is asked of law enforcement, and this  current pandemic has put a strain on all resources. EAGLE can help. Our older  adults are the people who raised us: now is the time to make sure we serve them  in their time of need. 

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