Editor’s Note:
AAR Annual Report, 2002-2003
Last summer when Loree told a good friend in the elder abuse
field that she was leaving the National Center on Elder Abuse
and starting her own organization to provide services to the
field, the friend was appalled. “Who will you be accountable
to?” she asked, pointing out that other national organizations
in this field had members to whom they were accountable.
It was Loree’s turn to be surprised. Loree went down
a litany of questionable happenings in our field. For each,
she asked, “Did the membership of X organization complain
when that organization did Y?” In each case, the colleague
had to admit that no, no one had complained, and that in many
of the cases, the membership never even knew about the decisions
that had been made in their name. (Indeed, as we were writing
this paragraph, we received an email request for donations
from one of our field’s organizations. The request said
they’d had donations up to $4,000 per member, but needed
more. They didn’t mention that WordBridges had offered,
months before, a $5,000 in-kind donation (minus $500 expenses)
in the form of website design and database construction. The
organization had acknowledged receiving the offer (after we
specifically asked some time later), but didn’t bother
accepting…or rejecting it, for that matter. Did the
members who were being asked to give again know a record-high
donation had been spurned, we wondered?)
Despite their shared recognition that if “accountability”
were required, our current system didn’t provide it,
Loree and her colleague ended the call without an alternative
way of achieving it. But an alternative process is necessary;
our field itself strives to hold caregivers and family members
accountable for their actions and responsibilities; how can
we not demand the same of ourselves?
And so we come to this first Adult Abuse Review annual report.
We think of it as analogous to the annual accounting some
courts require guardians to file; such reports don’t
preclude bad decision-making, but they do provide an opportunity
– for those who care to look – to see what has
been happening and draw their own conclusions.
Our first year is up because we date AAR’s conception
to June and July of 2002. Because of some directions the Administration
on Aging (AoA) was giving the National Center on Elder Abuse
(NCEA) for its fifth year, we saw an opportunity that summer
to implement some ideas we’d been nurturing for some
time about how to improve the ability of NCEA’s newsletter
and website to provide needed information on demand. Our proposal
was not accepted. Faced with our strong belief that the elder
abuse field could and should be served better, and now disappointed
that certain opportunities were going to go by the wayside
because of an allegiance to the status quo, we finally decided
that we would sever our ties with NCEA – Loree had been
one its primary staff members for over a decade; Michael had
consulted on several projects, including the National Policy
Summit on Elder Abuse – and develop our own, self-funded
“demonstration project.” That project was to consist
of a monthly web-based newsletter -- more in-depth than previous
newsletters had been -- that was integrated into an online
Clearinghouse in a way that would create an ever-growing database
of free, easily-accessible reference materials. We imagined
keeping a list of conferences that automatically updated itself,
semi-weekly updates to the homepage with breaking news, a
comprehensive list of website links, and a deep archive of
materials from earlier publications.
When we went “live” in late September, the website
had some of these features, but not all; it was important
to us to get the newsletter going; we’d come back and
fill in the gaps later. Our first issue of AAR came out the
first week in October, debuting (complete with flowers!) at
the National Association of Adult Protective Services Administrators’
annual conference. The positive response was gratifying; people
seemed to appreciate the level of coverage our initial edition
provided.
Unfortunately, our carefully planned schedule for producing
AAR, getting archived material online, and expanding the website
took a hit the very week after AAR
debuted. At that point, occasional strange happenings around
our homes began steeply escalating in both severity and frequency,
and we began getting distracted by fear and a mostly fruitless
search for answers and help. Over time, as the campaign of
terror against us went on, we were able to begin to right
ourselves even as the terror (and lack of help) continued,
but we’ve never caught up. Hence this “June/July”
AAR is being published in late August, the promised archived
material is still not available, and some of our hopes for
the website have yet to be implemented. We also have yet to
go back and update our many links, a task made particularly
pressing after the revision of the National Center on Elder
Abuse website in May resulted in moving (without a forwarding
address) many of the pages to which we had links.
On the other hand, we undertook a project this first year
that we hadn’t planned on: the creation of a database
of media stories on vulnerable adult and elder abuse. This
database required us to master many more web-design skills
and requires at least twice-daily Internet searches. Here,
too, our reach has somewhat exceeded our grasp, as the database
is only up-to-date through the first of July; literally hundreds
of additional articles are in various stages of the process
of getting them into the database and putting that online.
But we are pleased with the new effort; one APS supervisor
wrote us that he’s using that database to motivate his
workers, who have become dispirited over the hurdles they
must overcome in their efforts to find justice for their clients.
The new web-design skills also enabled us to undertake an
overhaul of the WordBridges website, to make it (to us, at
least; let us know what you think) easier and more pleasant
to navigate. In this process we were also finally able to
do the cross-referencing of AAR
articles that was an integral part of our original vision.
We added more accountability features, including a 2-question
web-based feedback form on every page to encourage people
to identify what information they want but can’t find,
and more sophisticated counters and other mechanisms to track
the site’s strengths and weaknesses so we can better
tailor it to our users’ needs.
Overall, we are very pleased with what we’ve accomplished
in this year. We have received dozens and dozens of compliments
on our work (a sampling of which can be found in the accompanying
article, “AAR
Compliments”). Although we have done very little
“advertising,” word-of-mouth and Internet searches
have proven our theory: there are many, many professionals
and other interested individuals who are craving more in-depth
information about elder abuse. In addition to the 1,000 people
who routinely receive an email announcement of a new AAR through
the national elder abuse listserve, more than 300 others have
subscribed to the announcement service. The scope of professions
and geographies these subscribers represent far exceeds our
wildest dreams for our first year. Although we could only
determine geographic location and/or profession for about
2/3 of our subscribers (subscribers are not required to give
this data when they sign up), those 200 by themselves represent
43 states, the District of Columbia, and a couple foreign
countries. The range of professions is impressive and includes
24 county APS agencies; 21 state and area agencies on aging;
36 state and local Department of Human Services or Department
of Social Services; 13 attorney generals or district attorneys;
18 librarians, publishers, and reporters; 19 researchers,
professors, and/or students; 10 state and local long-term
ombudsmen programs; 3 state long-term care licensure/certification
agencies; and many, many more (see “AAR Subscribers’
Analysis” for full listing). Clearly, the interest in
elder and vulnerable adult abuse and the desire for in-depth,
quality prevention and intervention information and resources
is high.
Perhaps more telling, we have begun to receive unsolicited
articles and materials to review. In the past two months,
we’ve received at least 6 unsolicited articles; one
of these -- plus an article we solicited after one of our
readers contacted us with concerns -- is published in this
edition. These unsolicited pieces to us represent the sense
that people feel AAR is a quality vehicle for getting out
the word on resources and issues important to those who serve
abused and at-risk elders and vulnerable adults. We are honored
to receive these “endorsements.”
On the complaint side, we received several comments early
on that our publication color didn’t print well on some
machines. We adjusted this; have we gotten it right? We still
can’t provide what many people want: pictures that tell
the stories of abuse, neglect, and self-neglect; we’ve
placed that item on our “to-do” list. What else
haven’t we done as well as you’d like?
What’s next?
For better or worse, the first year of AAR
coincided with an ongoing campaign of terror
and stalking aimed at our family by white supremacists. Not
only has this affected our ability to achieve our goals, but
it has changed our goals. Originally we were focused on proving
just how much information about elder and vulnerable adult
abuse is available but was not being passed on to the field,
or compiled in a useable manner. As our own victimization
continued, however, we began to fully understand -- in a way
that perhaps only victims can -- the incredible impact service
system workers’ skills, sensitivity, values, and commitment
have on victims’ lives. We’ve experienced what
happens when professionals aren’t well-trained, aren’t
supported, and aren’t held accountable. We also know
how literally life-saving just one respectful, caring person
can be.
These experiences have clarified our goals and strengthened
our commitment. We now describe our work as trying to reach
those respectful, caring people in the systems that touch
at-risk and abused elders and vulnerable adults and support
them with high-quality information and the sense that we believe
what they’re doing is important, noticed, and respected
by others.
Unfortunately, we are nearing the end of the retirement money
we had to invest in this project. Although the original intent
was to find partners that would allow us to continue the newsletter
and website under a reconstituted National Center on Elder
Abuse, this scenario did not play out. It turned out that
many, many aging and elder abuse organizations -- both national
and local -- are satisfied with what the field offered prior
to the establishment of AAR,
and did not wish to develop an alternative to propose to AoA.
So we ended up having to dream far more expansively, and design
a whole NCEA from scratch. That proposal has now been completed
and submitted to AoA. If it is funded, some version of AAR
will continue as a service of a much expanded and more responsive
federally-funded NCEA. If it is not funded, we will have to
seek funding elsewhere, and will be back to you then for ideas
and assistance.
We are so glad you have elected to join us in this endeavor;
we hope you’ll continue to support us and your colleagues
in helping to grow this very important field.
Sincerely,
Loree Cook-Daniels,
Publisher
Michael munson, webmaster
and graphic designer
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