Sarina Issenberg, LCSW, is the coordinator of the Philadelphia Elder Abuse MDT (PEAMDT) chaired by The Elder Justice Unit (EJU) in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO). She just celebrated her one-year anniversary with the team after spending nine years managing a nonprofit program designed to reduce stress in family caregivers of older adults. As the team MDT coordinator, Sarina convenes monthly meetings, strengthens communications between the partner members, tracks outcomes through database maintenance and advocates for policies and procedures that benefit victims of elder abuse and exploitation. During her initial year, Sarina additionally acted as the EJU’s Victim/Witness Coordinator by connecting victims with resources, offering emotional support, accompanying them to court and responding to inquiries and complaints via the Elder Abuse Hotline.

The well-balanced MDT is comprised of carefully selected partners such as: SeniorLaw Center (a civil legal organization), CARIE (a community and advocacy organization dedicated to older adults), the Penn Memory Center (focused on dementia care and research) and PCA (Philadelphia’s local Area Agency on Aging). The PEAMDT also benefits from consultations with the PA Attorney General’s Office, Community Legal Services, Register of Wills and the First Judicial District's Elder Justice & Civil Resource Center.

Successes

One unanticipated strength of the PEAMDT has been the participation of multiple representatives from a single community partner, each with distinct roles and proficiencies. For example, from the Philadelphia AAA, the MDT is strengthened by the input of the directors of Older Adult Protective Services and of Long-Term Care. Similarly, the Philadelphia Police Department offers a Victim Assistance Officer as well as detectives from their Economic Crimes Unit to join us at the MDT table.

Challenges

A challenge faced was designing a database that could collect the informational needs of the DAO and the MDT so that staff would not have to duplicate their data entry efforts. For this, Sarina is infinitely grateful to Julia Martinez, a doctoral researcher from USC who specializes in tracking outcomes for Elder Abuse MDTs. Starting from scratch was a daunting endeavor, but Julia listened and customized a set of Excel spreadsheets that now capture the figures critical to both the grant and the DA’s Office. Sarina would also like to extend an immense thank you to her E-MDT Technical Assistance Advisor, Betsy Ferner, whose kindness, humor, wisdom and expertise provided the PEAMDT with the safety, skills and guidance

Burning Questions for E-MDT Coordinators

1) The acronym for the Philadelphia Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Team is PEAMDT, which if you give it a try is not the most pronounceable combination of letters. Phonetically it’s articulated as “p-ee-m-duh-tuh”. Are there suggestions for an abbreviated team title that rolls more smoothly off the tongue?

2) Does anyone have referrals for neurological and dementia health experts who can perform capacity assessments and testify in court? A plus if close to Philadelphia.