Minnesota Elder Justice Center Will Fight Elder Abuse

An ambitious new resource will be added to the campaign against elder abuse in Minnesota, taking square aim at a growing 21st Century crime: financial exploitation of vulnerable adults.

The Minnesota Elder Justice Center, slated to open at the William Mitchell College of Law in January, combines the Minnesota S.A.F.E. Elders Initiative developed by the Anoka County attorney’s office with the Center for Elder Justice and Policy at William Mitchell. The new center — announced Thursday, on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day — will be staffed, have a toll-free hot line and offer resources through an Internet site, said Iris Freeman, associate director for the Center for Elder Justice and Policy.

“We need to remove the walls of family shame,” said Scott Campbell, a former Duluth police officer who took his brother to court after learning he’d stolen $107,000 from their mother.

Campbell, who was honored for his advocacy work during Thursday’s program at William Mitchell in St. Paul, warned that seniors are being bilked of billions of dollars in a variety of ways: by family members, fraudulent business deals and Internet scams.

The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates that as many as 2 million older adults are victims each year of financial exploitation, at a collective loss of $3 billion per year. In Minnesota, allegations of the financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult reported to Adult Protective Services rose from 3,900 in 2011 to 5,546 last year.

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Justice Center Will Fight Elder Abuse