Advocating for
Older Adults
Protect older citizens in Wisconsin from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Wisconsin's Elder Justice Coalition collaborates with leading state agencies, statewide organizations and non-governmental agencies to bridge gaps in coordination of needed services, to raise public awareness and to advocate for elder justice in Wisconsin.
What is Elder Abuse?
According to the World Health Organization, elder abuse is “a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person.” Elder abuse can be verbal, physical, emotional, sexual or financial. It can also be intentional or unintentional neglect. Unfortunately, elder abuse is a growing problem in Wisconsin.
Our Mission
The coalition has seven primary objectives:
- Expand the current Coordinated Community Response Team on Abuse in Later Life into a permanent and formal Elder Justice Coalition.
- Develop and create the Wisconsin Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST) process and FAST pilot.
- Recruit, develop, and support a FAST in each of the five Adult Protective Services (APS) regions.
- Develop and pilot at least one Elder Death Review Team (EDRT) to investigate elder deaths suspected of abuse or neglect.
- Conduct needs assessment of financial institutions, healthcare entities, law enforcement, and prosecutors to determine elder justice educational needs.
- Create elder justice educational materials and training available throughout the state based on needs assessment results.
- Provide elder justice education and disseminate to state and local government leaders.
Connect with Support
Safeguarding older adults begins with knowledge and access to vital resources.
Use the following downloads and links to engage with elder justice education.
General Elder Justice Resources
Scam SINGO
Scam SINGO is a tool to train community members on common finance scams. This fun game of bingo played with songs will increase dialog and understanding by using songs of the golden oldies to teach scam recognition.
Included are the SINGO/bingo cards, a facilitator packet and a marketing flyer.
Wisconsin Elder Justice Resources
Report Elder Abuse WI Resources
For help and information on Elder Abuse in Wisconsin, please learn more from the resources available through the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Wisconsin FA$T Toolkit
This Toolkit is to be used for the development, evolution, and sustainability of Financial Abuse Specialist Teams (FASTs) in Wisconsin. It offers resources and tools to support existing and new FASTs in reviewing cases and supporting clients of financial exploitation and abuse of older adults.
Compressed files will download as a zipped folder. Unzip the folder to extract the files inside. Both Windows and Mac OSX can unzip files without additional software. After the folder is unzipped, save the files on your computer for easy personalization.
Abuse & Fraud Reporting
Please don't wait to act. Protect yourself or someone you love from any form of elder abuse.
Need Guidance
If you need guidance, please contact Debra Leis, Program Specialist, Elder Justice Coalition, at elderjustice@uwgb.edu and (920) 465-2469.