REMARKS
NYC Department for the Aging's efforts on elder abuse education and awareness
0:44:31
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157 sec
Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez details the NYC Department for the Aging's ongoing efforts to educate and raise awareness about elder abuse. She emphasizes the importance of addressing the emotional impact of fraud on victims, particularly the shame they often experience.
- The department conducts ongoing educational processes and community outreach through 308 older adult centers and resource centers.
- Information is provided in multiple languages to reach non-English speaking populations.
- The commissioner highlights the critical need to address the emotional impact and shame experienced by fraud victims.
- Partnerships with District Attorneys aim to improve evidence collection, including early video testimony from victims.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
0:44:31
Well, the resource center, it's an ongoing educational process and a community outreach effort.
0:44:39
And it is done through each one of our, you know, 308 older adult centers as well as the resource centers.
0:44:47
So it is an ongoing effort to identify, to inform the public of the latest scams.
0:44:55
And as we said during the town halls, we also reinforce that work.
0:44:59
There is not there is not a lack of information out there.
0:45:08
What we need to do is make sure that everybody is aware of what they are, and we make it.
0:45:13
We make sure that we do it in multiple languages.
0:45:17
So that the population, you know, who's the most effective of those that, you know, do not speak English sometimes, is is aware also of what the latest scams are and what the fraud is.
0:45:30
The one thing that I wanted to send that has not come out in my testimony nor in NYPD is the impact that a fraud and a scam has on an individual.
0:45:42
The emotional impact of the shame that occurs is one of the things that we have to deal with 1st and foremost is get them to deal with the shame because you feel as if how could I have been so stupid.
0:45:58
Either trusting the individual that I knew or this how could I have fallen for this scam.
0:46:05
So that emotional part is something that we do a lot of work around.
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Because if we wanna get to rest restitution and if we wanna get to justice, we've gotta get over that hurdle first.
0:46:19
And and I do not want to underestimate the power and the work that needs to be done in that arena first.
0:46:27
And it's one of the reasons why we've had the partnership with the DAs and trying to get legislation to get people videoed early on about the crime and their there, all of as much detail as possible so that we won't get buyers regret later on.
0:46:43
Again, associated with the with the shame associated with that.
0:46:47
And that is something that all of the education, any education we do has to also had go back.
0:46:56
Because that's the emotional part that most people do not.
0:46:58
And people think about like, okay.
0:47:00
How do we get the perpetrator?
0:47:01
How do we do this?
0:47:02
First, we forgot to deal with the state of the victim Right.
0:47:06
Before we can move to that.
