Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
(N/A)
ST PAUL,MN 55108
Performing Department
School of Social Work
Non Technical Summary
There has been a growing concern about financial abuse and fraud of older adults, particularly adults with age-related cognitive disabilities. Researchers have documented that financial abuse of older adults is the most prevalent type of abuse, with 5% of older adults experiencing financial abuse from a family member (Acierno et al., 2010). However, despite this growing concern, there is still a disjointed policy and services framework addressing this issue, with states and counties having vastly differing approaches and resources directed at this problem. There is currently limited research into the effectiveness of policies or interventions to prevent financial fraud, and none that focus on the particular needs of those in rural areas. While people with lifelong disabilities experience high rates of various types of abuse, ranging from child maltreatment to intimate partner violence, there has been almost no research into the financial abuse and fraud that this specific group of people might experience at any age nor interventions that are directed to their unique needs. This study is the first step into a research program aimed at identifying policies and programs that best protect adults with disabilities from financial fraud, through first exploring the literature on this topic, followed by analyzing state statutes to determine how financial abuse is covered in state policy, and then interviewing rural and urban adult protection workers, attorneys and law enforcement professionals to determine what professionals believe are the current strengths and weaknesses in the policies, services and interventions aimed at preventing or intervening in financial abuse cases involving people with disabilities.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The broad goal of this stuy is toidentifypolicies and programs that best protect adults with disabilities from financial fraud. The specific objectives are:Objective 1: Develop a scoping study of research related to financial abuse and/or fraud of people with disabilities (of all ages).Objective 2: Complete a comparative policy analysis of state statutes to review how financial abuse and fraud are addressed in policies across the country..Objective 3: Interview attorneys, adult protection workers, social workers,and/or law enforcement professionals in Minnesota about the strengths and weaknesses of the current system to protect adults with disabilities from financial abuse and fraudObjective 4: To use findings as a basis for recommendations for policy, practice and future research.
Project Methods
Part 1: Scoping StudyThe first part of the study is a scoping review of the research literature on financial fraud for adults with disabilities. In this scoping study, financial abuse will be defined as theft, fraud, scams or exploitation, and people with disabilities include people with lifelong physical, intellectual, developmental or sensory disabilities. Differing from a systematic review, which involves a detailed systematic strategy for reviewing and assessing literature, a scoping study is a more broad strategy intended to gain a broad landscape of the research activities in the area of financial abuse and fraud of people with disabilities. This scoping study will use the scoping methodology of Arksey and O'Malley (2005), which I'm currently using in a different study. As there is so little published directly on this topic related to adults with disabilities, this will make a concerted effort to search in the grey literature (GAO reports, etc.) and to search internationally, particularly in the United Kingdom which has a more robust literature in this area. The specific methodology will be developed in the first year of the study, and will involve a simultaneous inquiry into programs and policies existing for people with disabilities.Part 2: State Statute Analysis The second part of this study will be a comprehensive analysis of state statutes to determine how financial abuse and fraud of vulnerable adults, including adults with disabilities, is covered. While the exact methodology will be developed during the first year of the project, it will likely involve a search of state statutes that cover adult protection and criminal codes, using the publically available statutes on WestlawNext. In addition, searches using standard fraud and financial abuse language, and likely new legal prevention measures such as "slayer statutes" that are ascertained during part 1 of this study, will be used to find references to fraud and financial fraud and financial abuse buried within general statutes. As the structure of state statutes is far from uniform, this will likely involve an extensive dive into the statutes in each state. The state statutes will coded to determine how financial abuse and fraud are defined, assessment procedures for determining financial abuse and fraud, sanctions for financial abuse and fraud, and prevention efforts related to financial abuse and fraud. A particular effort will be made to determine policy differences for treated older adults and younger adults with disabilities, though this review will not be solely on adults with lifelong disabilities. There will be an attempt to compare statutory data with data from the National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System (NAMRS), but this system is still in its infancy, and only summary reports are available, so this will not be a main focus of this part of the study. I have completed several similar state policy reviews (Lightfoot & Umbreit, 2004; Lightfoot, Hill & LaLiberte, 2010). My review of state statutes related to parents with disabilities (Lightfoot, Hill & LaLiberte, 2010) helped framed my future research in this area for ten years, directly led to the highly influential publication of a National Council on Disability Report (2012) recommending changes in state statutes across the country, and has been cited many times in academic literature and in policy reports. I'm expecting that this policy review will help guide my upcoming research and will also be relevant to policymaking in Minnesota and across the country.Part 3: Interviews with Adult Protection System Professionals The third part of this study, completed in the last year of this AES grant, will be to interview lawyers, adult protection workers, and possibly law enforcement representatives in Minnesota regarding their views on the strengths and weaknesses of the current system to protect adults with disabilities from financial abuse and fraud. Study participants will also be asked for their recommendations for policy changes. The specific methodology for this part of the study, such as sample size, sampling strategy, interview questions, interview methodology etc. will be developed during the first two years of the study in consultation with experts in adult protection in Minnesota. It is anticipated that we will interview roughly 30 professionals using a semi-structured interview guide developed based on Parts 1 and 2 of this study. This study will include a substantial sample from out-state Minnesota in order to compare urban and rural differences, which will be a key focus on this part of this part of the AES project. In addition, as so many adults with disabilities have had interactions with the child protection system either as youth or adults, a subset of interviews will be with child protection workers. We will also develop a qualitative data analysis strategy for analyzing the data, and use the findings from this data as a basis for Part 4 of the study.Part 4: Report Writing and DisseminationThe last step of this project will be to write-up the results of the study and to disseminate the process and the findings, which will be an ongoing process. Dissemination of the findings will take various forms in order to reach academics, as well as policy makers and social work professionals both within the state of Minnesota, as well as nationally and internationally. Dissemination will include, at least, creating a policy brief through the School of Social Work and development of in-person or online trainings. Further, manuscripts will be developed for submission to scholarly journals for publication, and findings will be presented at local, national and/or international conferences on disability, social work and/or adult protection.