Elder Justice Innovation Grants FY2021

The purpose of the EJIG program is to support the development and advancement of new and emerging issues related to elder justice. Funded projects will contribute to the improvement of the field of elder abuse prevention and intervention at large, such as by developing materials, programs, etc. that can be widely disseminated and/or replicated, or by establishing and/or contributing to the evidence-base of knowledge.

For this opportunity, projects will target the following populations and goals:
• assess the fairness, effectiveness, timeliness, safety, integrity, and accessibility of adult guardianship and conservatorship proceedings, and develop innovations to improve the experiences of individuals at risk of guardianship/conservatorship; and
• assess and understand the various community services that produce better outcomes for persons transitioning from APS interventions which are emergent and short-term to the broader OAA and community-based programs that remediate and prevent recurrence of abuse over the longer term.

Grantees for APS-OAA Transitions Demo/Option will be expected to carry out one or more of the following:
• Document the array of human, social, and legal services that most efficiently and effectively restore elder individuals who have experienced abuse, neglect and financial exploitation;
• Identify the differences in the package of services that best respond longitudinally to the needs of those of have experienced maltreatment;
• Establish durable, sustainable, and effective systemic relationships that better address the needs of people in the short- and long-term who have experienced abuse, preserve their autonomy, and mitigate risks of recurrence.

Grants for Improving Guardianship Demo/Option will be expected to carry out one or more of the following:
• Develop systems to audit conservator and guardian accountings
• Develop case management systems to track cases
• Develop judicial training programs and curricula
• Identify and understand how to avoid and/or mitigate abuse by conservators and guardians
• Explore how judicial systems may coordinate with SSA and the VA to identify and remove abusive fiduciaries
• Create an independent ombudsman program for wards to voice concerns and seek redress from abuse.

Grantees for APS-OAA Transitions Demo/Option will be expected to carry out one or more of the following:
• Document the array of human, social, and legal services that most efficiently and effectively restore elder individuals who have experienced abuse, neglect and financial exploitation;
• Identify the differences in the package of services that best respond longitudinally to the needs of those of have experienced maltreatment;
• Establish durable, sustainable, and effective systemic relationships that better address the needs of people in the short- and long-term who have experienced abuse, preserve their autonomy, and mitigate risks of recurrence.

For Improving Guardianship Demo/Option, anticipated outcomes are new systems to manage and document guardianships/conservatorships, new innovations to identify and prevent abuse and exploitations by guardians/conservators, and new user-friendly and victim-centered court processes for victims of guardian/conservator exploitation. Results of these projects will produce the first data sets on state guardian/conservator systems and incidence of abuse and exploitation.

For APS-OAA Transitions Demo/Option, the expected outcomes are that people who have experienced abuse will have measurable improvements in health, social, and functional status over the long term, their autonomy and independence will be preserved, and risk of recurrent abuse will be mitigated.

For both Options, grantees will be required to develop evaluation criteria and a plan to measure the extent to which these outcomes are achieved from baseline (award) through the life of the grant.