Task force releases recommendations to address financial exploitation of seniors
The Pennsylvania Department of Aging (PDA), joined by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office and other members of a publicprivate task force, held a media briefing to provide an overview of its work and announce a series of recommendations, focused on multi-disciplinary approaches, to help prevent financial exploitation of older adults and to effectively respond to incidents of financial exploitation.
PDA led the task force, which included representation from state government, the legal and financial sectors, aging, law enforcement and healthcare stakeholders. The task force met from December 2020 to April 2021 and concluded with the development of specific strategies covering four categories: education, training, operations and procedures and legislation.
“The Financial Exploitation
Task Force’s recommendations cover a wide spectrum and offer great opportunities for ongoing collaboration to implement them,” Secretary of Aging Robert Torres said. “They are designed to offer practical solutions to raise awareness of financial exploitation and to improve how we work together to protect older adults from becoming victims.
“I thank all of the task force members for their engagement, input and dedication on addressing the financial exploitation of older adults. The department staff and I look forward to supporting the workgroups that will continue working on these recommendations to achieve tangible results.”
Some of the recommendations include developing a training program for financial services providers on reporting financial exploitation, creating an online toolbox to help law enforcement investigate cases of financial exploitation and updating Pennsylvania’s Older Adults Protective Services Act (OAPSA).
“Every day, my office hears from older Pennsylvanians who share their stories of and concerns about being financially exploited,” said state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. “The resources that have been put together by this task force address many of the conversations that we have with older folks, as well as providing helpful information for family members and caregivers who are looking out for their loved ones.”
Over the course of five months, the task force reviewed the common types of financial exploitation, learned how capacity and cognitive decline in seniors increases their risk of being exploited, explored how to strengthen collaboration between government, law enforcement, financial services institutions and healthcare organizations, heard from family members of older adults who were victims of financial exploitation and discussed the critical need to update OAPSA.
“Like my family, I think most of the general public remains unaware of the sheer volume and heartache associated with financial exploitation of seniors until they become victimized,” said Amanda Cassel, whose grandmother was a victim of financial exploitation. “Having been through the process of picking up the pieces due to this crime, my family hopes that by sharing our story we can help others going through this process or even prevent another senior from being victimized.
“I am very impressed with the work that the Financial Exploitation Task Force is doing to help protect our seniors, and I am happy to be able to contribute to their efforts by participating in this way.”
“This task force builds better outcomes by joining organizations into a ‘Think Tank’ environment,” said David Shallcross, director of senior protection, attorney general’s office. “It has become apparent that no single organization is capable or prepared to handle all the aspects of preventing and responding to Older Adult Financial Exploitation on its own, it requires a team approach to accomplish our goals.”
“People living with Alzheimer’s
disease or other dementia are especially vulnerable to financial exploitation because the disease may prevent them from reporting the abuse, recognizing it, or even remembering that it occurred in the first place,” said Jen Ebersole, director of state government affairs, Alzheimer’s Association. “Recognizing early signs of the disease that leads to an early and disclosed diagnosis can initiate important conversations between physicians, patients and caregivers that can prevent financial exploitation through advance planning when cognition is least impacted.”
“Pennsylvania’s credit unions help protect older members from financial abuse and exploitation on a daily basis by questioning suspicious financial transactions and counseling older members on how to protect themselves,” said Christina Mihalik, senior vice president of government relations, CrossState Credit Union Association. “We routinely work with local authorities when abuse or exploitation is suspected. As the trade association for credit unions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
CrossState welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with other groups, including those represented on the Financial Exploitation Task Force, that are seeking to protect senior citizens and others from being taken advantage of financially.”
The task force will reconvene later this year to review and discuss the progress made on each recommendation.
The formation of a task force was one of five recommendations from a study on the Financial Exploitation of Older Adults conducted by PDA and released in September 2020.
The goal of the task force was to explore better coordination and proactive supports for older adults to improve early detection, prevention of and response to financial exploitation. Prior to assembling the task force, PDA convened a state interagency workgroup to explore improved collaboration between agencies and to develop initial recommendations for the task force to consider. This effort led to improved information sharing among several agencies.