Increasing national focus on elder abuse and a push for greater legal services involvement, particularly in the area of financial exploitation, have led to a number of difficult ethical challenges. This webinar will examine: ways in which ageist attitudes have shaped states’ elder abuse laws and how these attitudes – often unconscious – affect our approach to elder abuse, especially when clients are of questionable capacity; the critical need to establish and put in place clear policies/protocols to guide involvement in abuse/exploitation cases and to ensure adherence to professional responsibilities, before legal programs get involved; and the application of policies/protocols and dealing with ethical challenges while working with elders and their families/third parties in the field.
Presenters:
• Penny Hommel, Co-Director, The Center for Social Gerontology
• Jaye Martin, Executive Director, Maine Legal Services for the Elderly
• Denis Culley, Staff Attorney, Maine Legal Services for the Elderly