Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Team Project FY21

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, a federally recognized tribe located in northeast Nebraska, requests $373,789 from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Victims of Crime to support our Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Team Project FY21 project. The Tribe’s nationally recognized Human Service Department shall take the lead to achieve our goal: The Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Team Project shall develop a multidisciplinary team of professionals, from within and outside the Tribe, to ensure elders who reside on the Winnebago Reservation, who have been subjected to abuse, particularly  financial exploitation, do not fall through the cracks while their range of needs are being addressed.

To reach that goal and address gaps in service we have identified three objectives: Objective 1 - Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska’s capacity increases in four areas to better serve financial exploited elder abuse victims through 1. tribal code updates, 2. policy development, 3. establishing procedures, and 4. training Human Services Department, Tribal Court, and other community partners over 36 months. Objective 2 - Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska Human Services, Winnebago Tribal Court, and Winnebago Public Health Department will enter into and participate in a 36 month MOU to collaborate on the development of a multidisciplinary review team to address financial exploitation of elder abuse victims on the Winnebago Reservation. Objective 3 - Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska Human Services will develop a Multidisciplinary Team to address Elder Abuse and particularly financial exploitation of elders and vulnerable adults within 36 months.

To achieve the objectives we will organize and develop a multi-disciplinary team that will meet throughout the project to complete a needs assessment on the breadth of the problem, review, update, develop, and adopt tribal code, and policies and procedures to address financial exploitation of elders who reside on the reservation now and into the future. Project staff and MDT team members will participate in national trainings to increase knowledge of the problem and strategies to overcome elder financial exploitation. To sustain the work training materials will be developed for sharing across tribal departments to ensure the integrity of our elder’s access to their resources with dignity and confidentiality.

By achieving the above objectives, the Winnebago Tribe will have the necessary team, tribal code, policies and procedures to address financial exploitation of elders and other vulnerable adults on the Winnebago Reservation. This work will compliment other efforts the Tribe is developing to address all types of elder abuse.