To expand the circle, connect with Concerned Persons
Embrace and engage Concerned Persons as they help older adults who are victims of abuse
Informed by research and demonstrated need, the New York City Elder Abuse Center (NYCEAC) created a unique Elder Abuse Helpline for Concerned Persons, a non-emergency phone and email service for concerned persons: family members, friends, or neighbors of an elder abuse victim (residing in New York City, soon to be statewide).
This presentation was part of a workshop at Innovation in Victim Services: Transforming the Field Through Creative Solutions; New York State Office of Victim Services (NYS OVS) 2019 Conference.
“…elder abuse is likely the most widespread problem of older people that is largely preventable…”
“Attention is the currency of our most personal relationships.”
As a concerned person, our hero’s journey begins when the suffering of another person commands our attention.
Awareness fosters our personal connection and concern. To be aware is to be on guard — to beware.
Through knowledge we acknowledge alleged or actual injustice.
And we acknowledge our personal responsibly to act.
Through our agency, when we act we need to know society has our back.
Society’s ‘response ability’ (or ability to respond) must match — and mesh with — our personal responsibility.
Justice is guided by trauma-informed response to include restitution, reduced risk, and repair.
Should we share success, the advocacy by persons who suffer trauma — as credible messengers — command society’s attention and bring our path full circle to become whole, too.
This year, we seek to transform the field through creative solutions.
As change agents know:
Transformation is best achieved when there are transitions, in formation.
Toward transformation, models we explore should address and assess the relationship of different actors, over time, in different settings to promote postive change.
To realize social justice, we seek the emergence of a new, shared, pro-social norm, and the abandonment of norms that have stifled society…and self.
As with any journey — today, in our workshop, texting or even talking notes will be distracting.
To gain and maintain your attention, my comments and these slides (which have links to all references) are up on my web site, BeyondBrooke.org under ‘past.’
To cut to the chase — I feel there are three reasons I am invited to advocate for elder justice:
- I am the grandson of a famous philanthropist…who was abused by her only child, my father;
- I am a concerned person who acted, to save her from abuse;
- Due to the efforts of many, we were successful.
But..
- Most people do not have a famous grandmother;
- Most people do not act against abuse;
- And, if they do, most people never share such success.
What is considered less than our success is the trauma that took its toll on each of us throughout our ordeal, as concerned persons.
The same trauma is suffered by an estimated 73 million concerned persons across America. (Breckman, et al. 2018)
Concerned persons are non-abusing family, friends, and neighbors who serve as informal network supporters—here, for older adults who are vulnerable to or suffering from abuse and financial exploitation.
As informal network supporters there is nothing ‘informal’ about the stress some endure.
A concerned person is a supporting actor helping an older adult maintain the lead role in their own lives.
Explicitly, concerned persons, as supporting actors, need support, too.
But, as I will express here, while concerned persons need help from you; as experts you need their help, too — in partnership.
Together we will practice philanthropy, the love of humanity.
My grandmother was “Brooke Astor” only in the last half of her century-long life.
After the death of her husband, she became president of the Vincent Astor Foundation, which she led for four decades…as a senior.
Well in to her 90s, she was center stage as “New York’s First Lady” and a “humanist aristocrat with a generous heart.”
At age 96, she received the nation’s top civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Clinton.
Her close friend, David Rockefeller, hosted a 100th birthday party.
Then, she disappeared from the limelight.
This is until the contents of my guardianship petition, which was to have been sealed, was discovered by the press — leading to front-page headlines reading….
…“Disaster for Mrs. Astor.”
My grandmother would never want to be known as one of America’s most famous cases of elder abuse.
Nor did she, while in the throes of Alzheimer’s disease, choose to be victimized; to be deprived, manipulated, and robbed — all as part of my father’s calculated “scheme to defraud,” as characterized by the Manhattan District Attorney.
Yet, the sad circumstances surrounding my grandmother have informed a timely, and timeless, cause in elder justice.
This may be her greatest, most lasting legacy.
As my grandmother now rests in peace, I could have resumed my life as before.
For years my battle for my grandmother, and my battle against my father consumed my life — and consumed our family.
After a six-month criminal trial and conviction of my father, a friend said, “Philip, you must be glad that’s all over.”
But, I realize: While my grandmother was abused…and isolated, her case is far from isolated. Today, one in ten seniors are abused; one in five are exploited.
And, I realize: To be complacent about elder justice is to be complicit in elder abuse.
Our silence……protects perpetrators, not their victims.
Concerned persons help break the silence.
Concerned persons are critical to societyʼs success in detecting, responding to, and even preventing abuse.
Concerned person Nancy Oatts [who will next share her story] designed a graphic for a Huffington Post article that Risa [Breckman] and I wrote. (2017)
The artwork describes our altruistic act with the word “helping” that balances on a tightrope and ends with a dangling letter “g”.
As a grandson who helped his grandmother, I identify with Nancyʼs dangling “g.”
But, to be more accurate, the “g” represents gender equity.
As revealed by the pilot year of the NYCEAC Helpline, “Concerned persons were overwhelmingly female” and “daughters made the most calls, by far.”
As Justitia holds the balance, she acknowledges that ‘ageless equity’ (my term) will be strengthened when we practice gender equity.
This will resonate with many of you here today, and all along the way; you, who do so much for so many, sometimes with so little. Thank you.
Through our shared life course, intersectionality doesn’t have an expiration date. Neither does justice.
As principled actors, concerned persons draw the line.
This line becomes a battle line;
- at times, concerned persons position themselves as ‘human shieldsʼ to protect older adults;
- at times, concerned persons become collateral damage.
This line becomes a slackline on which concerned persons balance all lifeʼs responsibilities while now navigating dangerous, unchartered territory.
Concerned persons hang on by a thread. Alone, concerned persons cannot weave a secure safety net for seniors, self, and society.
Societyʼs secure safety net is woven by all of us.
Our safety net works…
…only when we have safety networks, formal, and informal, and in unison.
…strengthened through policy, protocol, practice, and advocacy.
Through advocacy, and by example, together we draw greater society back in to signal a “collective change of expectations,” a new normal.
But, when the capacity, consternation, and commitment of concerned persons are discredited and discounted, older adults may be at greater risk, with the burden to serve and save them shouldered by experts—more.
Lacking concerned persons, society is less enraged and engaged, as it should be.
Our networks are vital, as underscored by Nicholas Christakis, who gave the President’s Opening Plenary at The Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting in Austin, last week.
Yet, at times, our approach to aging focuses on independence — on instrumental activities of daily living…
…without an equal measure of interdependence, of intentional activities of daily loving, especially by persons in informal networks that connect and protect.
Within our circles of support, concerned persons are not just at the heart of (elder) justice, they are the heart.
Yet, concerned persons may be marginalized.
Perpetrators know this, to their advantage.
Isolation—of older adults and concerned persons—provides perpetrators with an opportunity, means, and even a ‘motive.’
We frequently focus on “the”-elder-and-“the”-abuser dyad—objectifying both, while leaving concerned persons (and all society) out of the act. This and denys our immediate agency toward prevention.
In revisiting “routine activity theory” we will realize that the presence of concerned persons as ‘capable guardians’ is critical for crime prevention.
For a concerned person, one of the greatest consternations is to hear, from authorities, that “elder abuse is not a crime.”
Elder abuse is a crime; it needs to be treated as such so victims (and their concerned supporters) are not re-victimized by perpetrators — and by society’s lack of responsibility and response.
All-too-prevalent fraud and ‘pure’ elder financial exploitation aside, elder abuse is the betrayal of trust.
(Elder) justice is the promise of trust.
For too long, I felt unworthy of my grandmother’s trust in me.
As concerned persons know, trust involves the ‘trust twins’: ethics and agency.
Our ethical responsibility must be matched by our agency—our ‘response ability’ or ability to respond — otherwise we feel helpless and hopeless.
As elder-justice experts, your (state and federal) agencies can help concerned persons achieve agency — agency to act against abuse, agency toward self-care.
It is confidence that helps concerned persons who reach out, having experienced the betrayal of trust inflicted on an older adult.
Concerned persons trust experts’ ethics, as they confined in you — knowing you trust them.
Concerned persons trust your agency, as they have confidence that you and other experts can help — and not question their altruistic motives.
Yet, under duress, trust may be tried and compromised.
Elder abuse is vastly unrecognized — and underreported.
This is one reason why experts must respect, and connect with, concerned persons, more — and help concern persons when they stand up against abuse.
A concerned person practices what I call “Upstandership .”
Upstandership is about standing up to social injustice, acute and chronic.
As concerned persons practicing Upstandership…we are concerned; And, it’s our concern.
We are concerned; we are worried, anxious, even traumatized about the wellbeing of an older adult, and ourselves.
It’s our concern; we recognize it’s our personal responsibility to stand up to injustice.
…and be supported by society, not diminished.
For concerned persons, the heart of practicing Upstandership is our “standing.”
But many concerned persons do not feel they are a full ‘personʼ as they are not seen as having standing in the eyes of experts.
This diminishes concerned persons, and society’s response to injustice.
As recently as the 1980s, crime was considered a harm to society, only.
Persons, who were victims of crime had no standing, no rights.
They were “nameless/faceless non-players in [the] criminal justice system.” (NCVLI)
Today, persons who have been victimized have rights enshrined in federal and state laws and constitutions…..
…with harm lessened through experts’ efforts nationwide and statewide, including those by the NYS Office of Victim Services.
But, for now, society is sidelined — even though elder abuse is a social harm born as a social construction created by and, in turn, debilitating society.
For now, this social harm is endured most by ‘primary victims,’ and ‘secondary victims,’ including concerned persons and experts…
…who can address and arrest this social harm, by commanding the attention of all society — all, persons with standing.
Being brought to attention, concerned persons take a stand, and first steps along a hero’s journey.
In limbo, concerned persons desperately seek relief and resources, including our NYCEAC Helpline.
Some concerned persons choose to report, refer, or respond to abuse.
Concerned persons do so with consternation, as most know:
[There is] a dramatic gap between the rate of elder abuse events reported…and the number of cases referred to and served...
Concerned persons’ involvement may help, but there is no guarantee.
Concerned persons linger in limbo.
The following will help:
- A ‘no wrong door’ for older adults and concerned persons, modeled by the Administration for Community Living’s ‘no wrong door’ attitude and approach for gaining long-term services.
- A statewide unified reporting portal.
- A statewide unified response.
If justice is gained, persons who have been victimized can begin to re-pair with society.
As credible messengers, through advocacy with experts, concerned persons can help command society’s attention, to come full circle collectively.
Toward a coordinated trauma-informed response, New York State will have enhanced multi-disciplinary teams (EMDTs) in all 62 counties by 2020.
Damage control after the fact helps, but it is insufficient. We must prevent abuse, more, before.
Here, EMDTs—coupled with NYCEAC’s Helpline, scaled statewide—will connect experts who serve and save seniors with those in their informal circles of support, toward prevention and intervention, together.
Experts in aging disciplines are isolated…from their personal role and responsibility as concerned persons — until abuse hits home.
When it hits, experts realize quickly the consternation and chaos of a hero’s journey.
Experts who serve and save seniors are isolated.
This, too, compromises our agency.
By engaging with concerned persons all along their journey, experts’ action-by-interaction connects disciplines and strengthens your, and society’s, agency.
All allies—as “bilingual” credible messengers—experts join concerned persons to command collectively society’s attention.
To “hack” upstandership, our prescription is ‘pre-scripting.’
When we rehearse compassion-in-action, daily, we build our ‘muscle memory’ to strengthen concerned persons when they rise to take a stand while burdened by the gravity of injustice.
Thank you for your attention…to concerned persons….
…..and toward transformation.
Please share your concern.
Call to action
Let us know how you can help (be) a concerned person, more.
Please respond (with your constructive critical comments).
Workshop
Invisible victims: Concerned persons of elder abuse victims; Elder Abuse Helpline for Concerned Persons, NYC Elder Abuse Center at Weill Cornell. At Innovation in Victim Services: Transforming the Field Through Creative Solutions; New York State Office of Victim Services (NYS OVS) 2019 Conference
Description
Within the broader field of elder abuse, little attention is devoted to the family, friends, and neighbors (“concerned persons”) in the lives of older victims of mistreatment.
Recent research conducted by the NYC Elder Abuse Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and colleagues found that concerned persons experience significant distress knowing about elder abuse and trying to assist victims (2017).
In addition, our direct work with concerned persons has brought us to understand that they can also be directly victimized by the elder abusers.
By both knowing about and becoming involved in elder abuse situations, concerned persons experience significant emotional and practical problems.
Unfortunately, like the victims they help, they are largely invisible. They often need a responsive professional to help, e.g., explain abuse and safety issues, assist in defining a realistic helping role, identify available services, engage an effective response from those able to help, respond to their concerns and distress, and bolster their support of the older victim, if possible.
NYCEAC’s Elder Abuse Helpline for Concerned Persons, a phone- and email-based service, provides needed support, information and referrals to concerned persons. Guidance is provided by an advisory board, including two concerned persons, Philip C. Marshall and Nancy Oatts. This presentation will include first-hand experiences from them and how their involvement assisting elder abuse victims has impacted their lives.
Panelists
- Risa Breckman, Director — NYC Elder Abuse Center at Weill Cornell Medicine Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine
- Philip C. Marshall, Founder — Beyond Brooke
- Nancy Oatts, Founder — Nancy Oatts Design
