Relates to investigating reports of suspected elder abuse or maltreatment

Title of bill

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to investigating reports of suspected elder abuse or maltreatment

Purpose

This bill establishes a program that allows social services districts to develop multidisciplinary investigative team or teams for the purpose of investigating reports of suspected elder abuse or maltreatment

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends Article 9-B of the Social Services law and adds a new Title 4 to authorize the Commissioner to establish a program for the development of a multidisciplinary team or teams for the purpose of investigating suspected elder abuse. Social Services districts may investigate reports of elder abuse through the use of multidisciplinary teams which shall include representatives from adult protective services, law enforcement, the district attorney's office, banks and financial institutions, as well as forensic accountants, physicians or medical providers, mental health professionals and victim advocacy personnel.

Section 2 sets an immediate effective date.

Justification

As part of the Elder Abuse Prevention Interventions grant initiative, two pilot programs in New York City and in the Finger Lakes (Monroe, Cayuga, Livingston, Ontario, Seneca, Wayne, and Yates counties) were established with the chief aims of improving systems collaboration and awareness of investigating and intervening in complex cases of elder financial exploitation and elder abuse.

Initial reports from the federal programs in the Finger Lakes and New York City regions have shown significant results in preventing the exploitation of older adults and the successful prosecution of criminal cases. The Finger Lakes site alone has reported $514,000 has been directed to be repaid by a court, or agreed upon in repayment plans, and over $130,000 has been repaid to victims to date. Coordinators noted that the multidisciplinary teams were "key to facilitating the work, and the meetings (conducted by the multi-disciplinary teams) enable cross-systems collaboration to address needs of vulnerable older adults who are victims of financial exploitation and other abuse."

Addressing financial exploitation is only one of the many components investigated by multidisciplinary teams whose work can be credited as literally life-saving at times.

Elder abuse has unfortunately emerged as a national epidemic that has significant consequences throughout our state. Given the proven record of the multidisciplinary teams, we have a model in place to build on their current work, as well as past experience, to continue efforts that aggressively target these crimes and build strong systems of intervention across our state.

Legislative history

New bill

Fiscal implications

Nominal cost to the state which may result in financial recovery for victims

Effective date

Immediate.