ABSTRACT
One of the challenges in preventing the financial exploitation of older adults is that neither criminal justice nor noncriminal justice professionals are equipped to detect capacity deficits. Because decision-making capacity is a cornerstone assessment in cases of financial exploitation, effective instruments for measuring this capacity are essential. We introduce a new screening scale for financial decision making that can be administered to older adults. To explore the scale’s implementation and assess construct validity, we conducted a pilot study of 29 older adults seen by APS (Adult Protective Services) workers and 79 seen by other professionals. Case examples are included.
Funding
Funding for this project was provided in part by the following grants: the National Institute of Justice MU-CX-0001, National Institutes of Health P30 AG015281, Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research, Retirement Research Foundation, American House Foundation, and Robert and Martha Sachs.