Strategies to Address Financial Abuse

Abstract

Financial abuse is a growing problem for older adults. This article outlines four major strategies for addressing elder financial abuse: (a) education and outreach, (b) general detection and universal screening, (c) legal interventions, and (d) multidisciplinary teams. Future efforts should be devoted to understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of these various strategies in order to keep older adults from becoming victims of financial abuse and to intervene as soon as possible once financial abuse has been identified.

Keywords:

• elder abuse
• financial abuse
• Financial Abuse Specialist Teams (FASTs)
• legal interventions
• Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs)
• screening