Upper Cumberland leaders heard about the need for more public education during the annual East Tennessee Elder Justice Conference.
Upper Cumberland Elder Advocate Trent Carter said that the annual conference was a platform to network with other elder justice experts and share knowledge. Carter said the focus on the elderly often gets lost amidst protection of children and animals.
“You know there have definitely been lots of efforts towards protecting children,” Carter said. “And even lots of efforts towards protecting animals and animal rights. But elder justice kind of gets left in the background.”
Carter said advocates discussed making the public aware of their responsibility to look out for the elderly population. He said they have support from Governor Lee and representatives at the state level.
Carter said people may think that they do not know enough about suspected abuse to report on it, but the law requires us to report suspected abuse.
“There’s a statewide adult protective services hotline that if you suspect any sort of elder abuse, neglect or exploitation you’re supposed to report that,” Carter said. “Whether you have all of the information or not.”
Carter said the hotline operator can help you determine what information is relevant and even determine information that is more important than you thought.
“Adult Protective Services will decide if there’s enough information to investigate, if it meets criteria, and where to go from there,” Carter said.
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