Elder Abuse Detection and Intervention: A Collaborative Approach (Springer Series on Ethics, Law and Aging)

PRESERVING A LIFE OF PEACE AND DIGNITY FOR THE AGING

This ground-breaking volume offers a new, collaborative approach geared to enhance case review, improve victim safety, raise abuser accountability, and promote system change.

Sharing the common goal of promoting elder victim safety, experts in adult protective services, law enforcement, prosecution, health care, advocacy, and civil justice have formed a unique, multidisciplinary team approach to tackle the following critical topics:

• Establishing a collaborative description of elder abuse history
• Identifying the criteria for the reporting of cases
• Accessing the intervention systems involved
• Highlighting benefits and obstacles to success
• Reviewing policy, legislation, research, and social change

As the aging population continues to grow, so does the potential for increasing cases of elder abuse. Replete with case examples that allow the experiences of victims to speak for themselves, this book provides the framework to begin, and to build on, collaborative approaches at the local, state, and national levels toward ending elder abuse.

Bonnie Brandl, MSW, is the project coordinator for the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life, a project of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Ms. Brandel has worked with battered women and their children for more than 17 years and worked with the Wisconsin Coalition for 14 years.

Carmel Bitondo Dyer, MD, FACP, AGSF, has been the director of the Geriatrics Program at the Harris County Hospital District since completing her postgraduate training in 1993. She is an associate professor of medicine at Baylor Colllege of Medicine and is co-director of the Texas Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Institute, a collaborative effort of Baylor College of Medicine, the Harris County Hospital District, and the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.

Candace J. Heisler, JD, served as a San Francisco assistant district attory for more than 25 yeaers before her retirement in 2002. As a prosecutor, she headed various units in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, including the Domestic Violence Unit. She is a member of the California Violence Against Women STOP Task Force and has served on the Texas Medical Association Blue Ribbon Panel on Family Violence and on the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse. She has received many awards, including the California District Attorney's Association Career Achievement Award, and the California Governor's Victim Services Award. The author of numerous articles, Ms. Heisler is currently an assistant adjunct professor of law at the University of California's Hastings College of Law.

Joanne Marlatt Otto, MSW, is the executive director of the National Adult Protective Services Association, in which role she has drafted language regarding adult protective services delivery for the Elder Justice Act.

Lori A. Stiegel, JD, is associate staff director of the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging in Washington.