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Reconvene and establish your elder fraud prevention network

Schedule a follow-up meeting to review network priorities and form working groups to establish your network.

Your core planning team should schedule this meeting to take place four to six weeks after the convening. The main activities of this meeting are:

  • Reviewing the readout
  • Naming your network
  • Selecting the network coordinator(s)
  • Assigning stakeholders to work groups

Review the readout

Begin the meeting by reviewing the readout you sent to stakeholders after the convening. Make time to discuss any questions or concerns as a group.

Select coordinator(s)

Choose or confirm a coordinator or co-coordinators to lead the network and take charge of administrative duties. Your network members can decide how long coordinators will lead these tasks.

Name your network

Naming your network will make it easier for members to talk about your work with the wider community. We created an activity to help name or rename the network.

Form working groups

Before the meeting, your team should set up space for each working group. Consider using table tents with the name of each working group. Familiarize stakeholders with the suggested goals and tasks of each working group. Instruct the coordinator and/or facilitator to encourage members to join working groups so that each group has stakeholders from a variety of fields.

Types of working groups

Members of this working group often have backgrounds in:

  • Case management
  • Law
  • Social work
  • Medicine
  • Mental health
  • Law enforcement
  • Emergency response
  • Other relevant fields

Sample goals

  • Start a multidisciplinary team (MDT) or financial abuse specialist team (FAST) to conduct case reviews
  • Start an elder financial exploitation SAR review team (SARRT)
  • Develop a system for case referral among network members
  • Develop a confidentiality protocol to use when discussing cases
  • Assist members in drafting a Memorandum of Understanding between organizations
  • Hold case review meetings to collaborate on cases of suspected elder financial exploitation
  • Establish a working relationship with relevant stakeholders, such as the district attorney’s office or a local law enforcement agency

Members of this group often have a background in:

  • Training and education
  • Public speaking
  • Community presentations
  • Marketing and outreach

Sample goals

  • Develop and implement fraud prevention education for seniors and caregivers
  • Distribute educational materials to senior centers, senior living communities, financial institutions, medical offices, libraries, and other locations
  • Develop public service announcements to be broadcast Consider creating subcommittees focused on outreach to specific communities (foreign language, LGBTQ, etc.)

Consider recruiting members with a background in:

  • Law
  • Policy
  • Procedural development
  • Standard operating procedures

Sample goals

  • Implement confidentiality protocols to use during case review
  • Develop a common understanding of how different disciplines define “capacity”
  • Develop and distribute a list of community resources and key contacts for issues related to elder financial exploitation

Members often have a background in policy advocacy or have connections to policymakers.

Sample goals

  • Encourage community leaders to prioritize issue of elder financial exploitation
  • Support state funding for agencies addressing elder financial exploitation
  • Advocate for the creation of safe, accessible shelters for older adults experiencing domestic violence

Members often have connections in relevant disciplines, or a background in:

  • Public speaking
  • Professional presentations
  • Curriculum development
  • Training and education

Sample goals

  • Develop role-specific professional training for financial institutions, attorneys, healthcare professionals, and social services providers
  • Create a referral guide of network members that includes each member’s organization and its role
  • Secure funding to create a day-long training for criminal justice professionals
  • Encourage banker’s association to provide ongoing training for financial professionals
  • Host annual conference to share promising practices, case studies, and innovation
  • Develop a common understanding of how different disciplines define “capacity”

Activity to establish groups and set goals

Use this activity to help each working group develop a mission statement, determine the group leader, select a goal, and make an action plan for achieving it. Group leaders should assign tasks to each member so that everyone shares the workload.

Download group activity

Measuring your working group success

You can evaluate and measure the impact of your working group. This will help you examine their progress towards reaching their group goals.

Read our working group evaluation questions

Create a referral guide

A referral guide helps members connect with individuals or organizations outside of their expertise that can help them address elder abuse issues. You can fill in the referral guide with contact information from your invitation list or convening roster. You should include:

  • The name of your key contact at each organization
  • Any relevant services that the organization provides
  • Any limitations on who can receive those services

Download referral guide template (Excel)