RiverSpring's Weinberg Center expands elder abuse helpline to every NYPD precinct

The Weinberg Center for Elder Justice located at RiverSpring Living, 5901 Palisade Ave., has expanded its Service Provider Elder Abuse Coordination Helpline, or SPEACH, to every New York City Police Department precinct.

The initiative is a partnership with Safe Horizon, the largest victim advocacy nonprofit in the nation. The consultation line connects crime victim advocates embedded in precincts with elder abuse specialists who can help navigate the legal, medical and social issues unique to cases with older adults. The expansion builds on the program’s rollout last fall in the city’s five Family Justice Centers, where advocates now regularly consult Weinberg staff on elder abuse cases.

Safe Horizon’s Crime Victim Assistance Program places at least one advocate in every NYPD precinct to help victims understand their options, whether they ultimately decide to pursue criminal charges or not. The program grew out of the Domestic Violence Police Program, first established in 1984, and expanded citywide in 2015 and 2016.

According to the New York City Department for the Aging, roughly 15 percent of New Yorkers over age 60 experience some form of mistreatment. By extending the partnership into precincts, older adults entering the criminal justice system will receive more specialized support before critical decisions are made, said Dierdre Lok, director and managing attorney at the Weinberg Center.

“This was a big launch for us because it affects a wide geographic range and area, and it is enhancing and further developing a relationship that we had already begun in terms of training on elder abuse and elder mistreatment,” she said, adding abuse cases involving older adults are often more complex than a single criminal act.

In 2022, the NYPD responded to more than 19,000 domestic incidents involving victims aged 60 and older. Yet advocates estimate only one in 24 older adults experiencing abuse ever sought professional help, according to the National Council on Aging.

Lok said cases can involve financial exploitation, neglect, coercive control or spiritual abuse, and the person responsible is frequently someone the older adult relies on, such as a family member or caregiver. That can make decisions about seeking help or pursuing criminal charges especially difficult, she said.

An older adult may need help determining whether cognitive impairment affects decision making, identifying alternatives to an abusive caregiver or finding a safe place to live while preserving important family relationships, she noted. Those are issues that often fall outside the expertise of a traditional criminal investigation.

While the Family Justice Center partnership connected domestic violence advocates with elder abuse specialists, Lok said the Safe Horizon precinct expansion reaches professionals who often become one of the first points of contact after a crime is reported.

“What we recognize is the need for this particular group of professionals to have someone else, some outside people to turn to and ask for support in dealing with an older adult in ways that person — the crime victim advocate —might not be thinking about,” Lok said.

For Safe Horizon Vice President of Criminal Justice Programs Maureen Curtis, that often means helping older adults understand that they have options beyond simply pursuing an arrest.

“Somebody may not want the person who’s hurting them arrested, but they want other services,” Curtis said. “We want to offer guidance and assistance for that survivor.”

Curtis explained older adults may instead need help finding safe housing, replacing a caregiver, accessing medical care or protecting their finances. Those are areas where the Weinberg Center’s attorneys, social workers and health care professionals can offer expertise beyond what most crime victim advocates encounter in their day-to-day work.

Curtis said that many precinct advocates already understand the criminal justice system and available victim services, but elder abuse cases often require knowledge of dementia, home health care, Medicaid eligibility, long-term housing and other age-specific resources that may not arise in other cases.

“That’s why our relationship with Weinberg is so critical,” Curtis said. “They’re going to have an expertise that we don’t have.”

The goal, Lok said, is to ensure older New Yorkers receive coordinated support regardless of which precinct they first enter.