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Resources to help you respond to elder abuse and financial exploitation, now

This compilation identifies national, state, and local resources to report elder abuse and financial exploitation, to find help for victims and caregivers, and more.

This compilation is a list in formation, not just information. Your help is needed.

Please contribute a response at the far bottom of the page or on Twitter (please include #beyondbrooke).

What is your experience? What works? What is needed?

Emergencies

Call 9–1–1 if an immediate response is needed for police, fire, and/or medical services.

Police — Suggestion, if you are in the same place as the person in need: to obtain the phone number of local police using a smart phone, search the Web for “call police emergency.”

Adult Protective Service (APS) — To find your local APS program, go to National Adult Protective Services Association (click on map to view results by state, displayed to the right).

When acting against elder abuse, we may be filled with angst, frustration, and even a sense of impotence in contemplating how to help vulnerable persons. ~ Often, we do not know what to do, or who to turn to. We hope that our personal responsibility to report abuse is supported in equal measure by our community’s ability to respond (their “response ability”). We need to believe that that our community has our back — otherwise, our agency will be diminished and the victims (primary and secondary) may be at greater risk.

Reporting abuse — alleged or actual

For non-life-threatening emergencies, call:

• Eldercare Locator helpline: 800–677–1116, or
• Victim Connect hotline: 855–4VICTIM, (855–484–2846)
• Adult Protective Service (APS) — To find your local APS program, go to National Adult Protective Services Association (click on map to view results by state, displayed to the right).

“You do not need to prove that abuse is occurring; it is up to the professionals to investigate the suspicions.” — National Elder Abuse Center (NEAC)

“The professionals receiving your report are prohibited from releasing your information as reporter. They may not disclose your identity to the alleged abuser or victim.”— NEAC

Please, report abuse — alleged or actual. Silence protects perpetrators, not their victims.

Mandatory reporting laws require certain groups (or all adults) to tell designated authorities about reasonable suspicions of elder abuse — State statutes relevant to elder abuse, U.S. Department of Justice.

“Crossing the Rubicon” refers to an irreversible and risky course of action undertaken by an individual, or a group. When, in 49 BC, Julius Cesar crossed the Rubicon River — the northern boundary of Italy — with his army, defying the Roman Senate, he reflected aloud upon this commitment by uttering the phrase “alea iacta est” — “the die is cast.” ~ For those of us that seek to protect vulnerable persons from suffering and exploitation, the “die is cast” at that moment when we courageously commit to report instances of abuse and exploitation! The battle for (elder) justice can be lonely.

State resources

Find help (in your state) and report abuse. Elder Justice Initiative, U.S. Department of Justice.

Connect to services for older adults and their families, in their community. Eldercare Locator, public service of the Administration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Call the Helpline 800–677–1116.

For a directory listing of state reporting numbers, and more: State resources and training resources. National Center on Elder Abuse, funded by the Administration for Community Living.

Find specific state resources, compiled by the National Center on Elder Abuse.

New York

To assist a concerned person as long as the victim resides in one of the five New York City boroughs, call the New York City Elder Abuse Center Helpline for Concerned Persons at 212–746–6905 (M-F, 9am-5pm Eastern).

To be connected to New York City services for elder abuse, help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by calling 311 (from outside New York City call 212–639–9675) or search for elder-abuse services.

(Additional) national, federal, and tribal resources

If you are a professional, older adult and caregiver, or advocate, the National Council on Aging had tailored its many resources for you. Scroll down on the site to get started.

If you are a member of a tribe and are looking for information. Specific resources, National Center on Elder Abuse.

For resources on scams and fraud, family caregiving, politics and society, and much more, visit AARP.

Financial exploitation and fraud

For specific resources, listed depending on type of abuser and type of loss: Elder abuse resource roadmap: financial, U.S. Department of Justice.

To get assistance from FINRA or raise concerns about issues with brokers, brokerage accounts, and investments call the FINRA Securities Helpline for Seniors® 844–57-HELPS (844–574–3577).

State securities regulators can also be a good resource in dealing with cases of elder financial exploitation. Regulators are listed at saveourseniors.org, an initiative of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

If you know someone who has been a victim of fraud, or if you suspect that they may become a victim, email the Fraud Hotline, U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. Call, toll-free, 855–303–9470, weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET.

You may file a complaint with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) if you believe you have been the victim of an Internet crime or if you want to file on behalf of another person you believe has been such a victim.

Report someone falsely claiming to be from the government, a business, or a family member; scams and other rip-offs, and unwanted solicitations. Complaint Assistant; what you know can help protect someone who you know from a scam. Pass it on, Consumer Information, Federal Trade Commission.

Having a problem with a financial product or service? Submit a complaint, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (working with older adults) wants to know.

Do you suspect someone of committing fraud, waste, or abuse against Social Security? Report fraud, waste or abuse, Office of the Inspector General, Social Security Administration.

Our universal, ‘social compact’ demands equity between society and the self, in equal measure. This fundamental, balancing relationship requires two elements: the first is, ‘trust,’ achieved through personal and professional responsibility, and the second, relationships—‘depth of social cohesion and health’, which is realized and activated through the supportive mechanisms of the community and its overall state of concern, capacity, and interconnectedness. ~ When we are confronted with alleged or actual injustice, we are concerned, worried, anxious, and even experience personal trauma; but we viscerally and intellectually comprehend that “it is our concern” and that we have an obligation to act. ~ Actual ‘capacity ‘is two-fold. It includes and our cognitive capacity (and any implicit biases) to assess and address injustice with humanity regardless of our own sex, race, and age, or that of the victim(s). ‘Capacity’ also includes our agency, or ability to act with anticipated success. ~ ‘Isolation’ is a debilitating force. The counterforce (or ‘antidote’) lies in the strength of community relationships. Isolation and lack of community are the primary contextual risk factors for abuse. Perpetuators of abuse — like natural predators separating the weakest animals from their herds — utilize and weaponize isolation, employing it as a strategic tool in their cognitive, emotional, and social arsenals. They utilize isolation as a mechanism to further compromise seniors, their circles of support, and their larger communities. ~ Engaging in and understanding community connections and their context(s) is critical to elder justice — particularly as we work not simply ‘for’, but ‘with’ elders, their families, friends, and circles of support in their extended communities. In proactively working with family, friends, caregivers, and professionals we gain trust, spark awareness. We foster support and generate processes of re-empowerment, encouraging others to come forward and to report suspected elder abuse.

Victims of crime

For confidential referrals and resources for crime victims. Victim Connect, a program of The National Center for Victims of Crime. Call the Victim Connect Hotline 855–4VICTIM (855–484–2846).

To get help for victims of crimes, including victim witnesses. Victim Witness Program, U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Call 877–876–2455 (press 2).

Caregivers

Help and support for victims of Alzheimer’s/dementia and their caregivers. Help & support, Alzheimer’s Association. To report an incident or concern of abuse or neglect, call 800–272–3900.

If a veteran or their caregiver is looking for services and resources. Geriatrics and extended care, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

For resources and engagement on economic security, health, public policy, action, and involvement, National Council on Aging.

Adult-care homes

Find help for residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, board and care homes, and similar adult care homes, contact a Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCOP), Citizen Advocacy Group (CAG), and other long-term care resources in your state or territory through the National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center, National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care.

Call to action

Please contribute a response at the bottom of the page or on Twitter (please include #beyondbrooke).

What is your experience? What works? What is needed?

Join Beyond Brooke on Facebook.

Sunrise over a stream just before it enters Slocum’s River and the Atlantic Ocean, Dartmouth, MA. As with other natural fractals, justice scales and repeats.