The NYC Elder Abuse Conference, started in 2006, just completed its 8th annual event yesterday on 6.5.13. The title of the conference was
“Elder Abuse; Expanding the Conversation. Best Practices for Preventing and Resolving Elder Abuse.”
So much information was shared during the conference and I will give you a little insight here.
The opening speakers began the event by addressing Elder’s general fears for acknowledging abuses. These fears include:
- fear of hurting loved ones
- fear of abandonment or moving to a nursing home
- the shame of sharing abuses with someone else
They noted that the Elder Abuse Training Institute teaches that a strong combination of social services AND legal assistance for elders would be the best combination to prevent and resolve elder abuses.
The Department for the Aging continued by mentioning they are keeping a database of elder abuses in NYC, and the Commissioner at HRA suggested that managed care connect with social services from now on for the care of the elderly. This concept would make middlemen like agencies, patient advocates and case managers essential to connecting social services with managed care, for the care of the elderly, and to prevent and resolve elder abuses.
Keynote Speech: Capacity Assessment- Jason Karlawish, MD
The Keynote speaker was wonderful. Jason Karlawish, MD, is a geriatrician who specializes in Alzheimer’s Care. He provided the participants of the conference with an essential tool that cannot be understated. This tool is a system for conducting Capacity Assessment with Patients or Clients.
Capacity Assessment tool is a system of measuring and determining a patient’s ability to make decisions regarding their IADLs (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living). What this means is, Is the patient able to make decisions for themselves, reason and come to the best decision, or do they require decisions regarding their IADLs to be made for them.
A breakdown of Capacity Assessment of “Decision Making Ability” is as follows:
- patient understands what is being asked of them, what decision has to be made
- patient appreciates the importance of the decision to themselves
- patient has the ability to express a choice
- patient has the ability to reason, compare and understand consequences of their decision
Capacity Assessment is an important tool because it helps determine if a patient is capable of basically deciding how to live their life, and make choices in their life. It is important to understand this so that a provider will know how to respect the patient’s autonomy, and how much help they would need to make decisions. It helps determine how significant are the patient’s cognitive impairments and level of capacity, which makes communicating with the patient much more effective.
The Capacity Assessment Evaluation consists of the following important points:
- What is the decision that needs to be made or problem that has to be solved regarding the patients IADLs
- Evidence that the patient has an impairment to their decision making (ex. Alzheimers- what stage of Alzheimers, is an important assessment)
- Assess Capacity/ Decision Making Ability
- Again readdress what factors are contributing to the patients problem making a decision ( sometimes its values, and in the case of potential elder abuses, fears, etc)
The Capacity Assessment Evaluation can also be applied to the patient’s primary caregiver, and used to determine how much the caregiver is in line with the patient’s wishes and life. The primary caregiver in this instance would be referred to as the Knowledgable Informant, referring to their role in assisting the client with IADLs and Decision making. A key question to ask of both patient and Knowledgable Informant would be ‘Describe a typical day for (patient)’, and to compare the answers to see if they are together.
Workshop #2
Clergy Gatekeepers Role
This workshop was great. The panelists were:
Alyson Morse Katzman, Associate Director of Safe havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic Violence
Jonathan Soto, Steering Committee Chair for Brox Clergy Roundtable
Rabbi Shimon Hirschhorn, Director of Religious Affairs at Hebrew Home at Riverdale
Art Mason, Moderator, Director, Lifespan of Greater Rochester Elder Abuse Prevention Program
The number one point addressed in this workshop was the important role the faith community/clergy can have in preventing and resolving elder abuse. This is because
- many or most elders attend and are very proud of their faith association
- elders can find trust in their clergy members if it is made an option to them
- there would be less suspicion from abusers (family or other) regarding the role of clergy members in assisting elders in getting out of an abusive situation
Therefore it would be important to train leaders in the faith community to understand Elder Abuse, know that it exists, recognize risk factors and red flags, and to know what resources they have to refer elders in abuse situations, or how to counsel someone out of an abuse situation.
I plan to collaborate with my contacts from this workshop to develop a training module for clergy members in NYC and deliver workshops to the clergy members. We will also create a training module for the youth and formerly incarcerated youth to help them recognize and to prevent current and future elder abuse.
Workshop # 10
Disproportionality in Aging Services: Who is Underserved
Panelists:
Catherine Thurston, Senior Director of Programs, SAGE
Diana Cruz, Care Manager, Visions Services for the Blind
Roxanne Simms, Social Case Worker, Visions Services for the Blind
Geoffrey Rogers, Moderator, Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity, Hunter College
This workshop was informative. The panelists discussed underserved populations of elders who need resources, including LGBT seniors and seniors with handicap such as Blind or visually impaired. They discussed particular ways in which elders in these populations can be abused, and reasons the abuses can go unaddressed.
LGBT seniors
- lots of financial abuse from ‘sweetheart scammers’
- threats of violence and outing them to their families
- isolation from the outside world
- few agencies have specialized training to address caring for an LGBT senior
Blind or Visually Impaired
- probably been a victim at some point because of their disability
- lots of financial abuse from family members or trusted caregivers
- people dont listen to them, offer assistance when they are not compelled to
- isolation from the outside world
- lack of specialized resources for Blind or Visually impaired
I also asked about whether LGBT seniors would require LGBT aides, and the panelist answered no, not necessarily LGBT aides, but aides interested in and trained to work with LGBT seniors.
I plan to coordinate a special training for more aides to work with LGBT seniors. Most of this training will be conducted for aides at JNJ Home Healthcare Inc.
I will also invite our blind and visually impaired clients to be aware of and to attend support groups specifically for the blind and visually impaired at VISIONS, and have access to adaptive devices offered by VISIONS.
Special Thanks to all the presenters and participants I was able to meet at NYC ELDER ABUSE CONFERENCE! I look forward to engaging in Elder Abuse Prevention and collaborating with other professionals in NYC and Nationally.
