When an elderly person is caught in the snares of financial abuse, a professional such as a nurse, physician, banker, or attorney can only provide help if he or she knows what to look for and what to do when elder abuse is suspected. Professor Katherine Pearson will visit the Penn State School of Nursing to present “Beware of Befrienders: Analyzing Roles for Professionals in Helping Older Adults Avoid Financial Abuse” at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 27, in room 108, Wartik Building on Penn State's University Park campus.
The lecture also will be will be available via videoconference to Hershey ASB.
“This is a rare opportunity to speak with an experienced elder law attorney and better understand this important issue, which has become an enormous problem for older adults in recent years,” said Professor Patricia Holland Webb, project administrator at the John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing at the Penn State School of Nursing, which is sponsoring the event.
“Financial abuse can be a complex interdisciplinary problem. We would shortchange vulnerable people by addressing this problem through the eyes of just one profession,” said Professor Pearson, who is a scholar of legal issues facing older adults and focuses on interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to elder care.
Professor Pearson founded and co-directs the Penn State Elder Protection Clinic and recently authored the Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation in 2011 (with Trisha Cowart). She has held the position of Petersen Visiting Scholar in Gerontology and Family Studies at Oregon State University and was a Fulbright scholar in residence at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, where she conducted international research on policies related to protection and care for older adults.
To learn more, contact Patricia Webb in the Hartford Center at phw120@psu.edu or call 814-863-5614. This program will provide 1.0 continuing education contact hours for registered nurses.