About ASAAPS

Who We Are

Adult protective services workers, adults with disabilities, aging services providers, bankers, community coalition members, congregate housing staff, consumer advocates, court personnel, disability activists, district attorneys, elders, family members of older or disabled adults, guardians, health care providers, home care professionals, law enforcement officers, lawyers, legislators, licensing and certification staff, long-term care ombudsmen, Medicaid fraud control investigators, mental health providers, nursing home reformers, nursing home staff, probation and parole officers, protection and advocacy workers, reporters, researchers, students, survivors and witnesses of adult abuse, victim assistance personnel, volunteer ombudsmen...

...and, we hope, you.

What We Are Trying to Do

The mission of the American Society of Adult Abuse Professionals and Survivors (ASAAPS) is to:

•  Connect the diverse professionals and advocates who address and prevent elder and disabled adult abuse with each other and with survivors of adult abuse, in order to promote understanding, education, resource-sharing, collaboration, and innovation.

•  Support and inform adult abuse survivors and professionals to enable them to heal from the abuse they've experienced and/or witnessed, and to inspire their continued commitment to addressing and preventing elder and disabled adult abuse.

•  Invigorate and advocate for the continued improvement of systems that provide services to victims and survivors of elder and disabled adult abuse.

•  Initiate and promote interpersonal and community-wide efforts to prevent, recognize, and address abuse of elders and adults with disabilities.

•  Identify and nurture new leadership in the field of elder and disabled adult abuse.

About Our Scope: Elders and Adults with Disabilities

ASAAPS addresses abuse of both elders and adults with disabilities in part because there is a growing overlap between the demographic groups "elders" and "adults with disabilities." As medical science extends lifespans, an increasing number of adults with disabilities are growing old. At the same time, the older people get, the more likely they are to develop disabling chronic or acute conditions. Thus, many people are both older and have one or more disabilities.

Another reason ASAAPS addresses abuse of both elders and younger disabled adults is because they are often served by the same institutions and professionals. Nationally, an increasing percentage of nursing home residents are younger than 60. State governments' aging and disability agencies are being merged in many places, and most adult protective services' laws and programs address both demographic groups.

About Our Scope: Domestic and Institutional Abuse

We address both abuse in institutions and abuse in "domestic" or "community" settings because, from the victims' point of view, they are indistinguishable. Both make the victim feel unsafe where they live and fearful of the very people they depend on for help and companionship.

The wide scope of crimes and actions that fall within the definition of "elder or vulnerable adult abuse" -- physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment, financial exploitation, neglect and even self-neglect -- was established largely by legislators and advocates more than two decades ago when they developed adult protective services (APS) and wrote the necessary laws.

ASAAPS also addresses frauds and even, in some instances, crimes by strangers because there are no hard-and-fast dividing lines between the "types" of perpetrators and abuse. Strangers can rapidly become "new best friends," and it is common for cases of fraud to include some other type of abuse, such as "warning" someone that their family might abandon them if they don't buy what the con man (or con woman) is selling.

About Our Scope: Survivors and Professionals

Although being a victim of abuse typically makes a person feel isolated and different, abuse is a community issue. It tears the very fabric of our social structure by causing fear, distrust, and depression. It is also ubiquitous: In the U.S., 25% of women and 8% of men have experienced rape or physical assault by a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, or date.(1) Counting child abuse and assaults by any perpetrator, 66% of men and 52% of women have been physically assaulted.(2) That means many of the professionals who work with abuse survivors are survivors themselves. This history must be acknowledged, healed, and used if we hope to begin reducing the damage done by intimate violence.

Professionals also benefit from hearing more about the aftermaths of abuse, and particularly how many people are affected by each case of abuse. Only one person may be abused, but many people must deal with the consequences. For that reason, as well, ASAAPS has erased the traditional dividing line between professionals and victims/survivors.

1. Tjaden, Patricia and Nancy Thoennes, "Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey." National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, November 1998, available at http://ncjrs.org/txtfiles/172837.txt.

2. Ibid.

About Our Scope: Domestic Violence

Much (if not most) of "elder abuse" and "vulnerable adult abuse" is domestic violence. Studies have shown that up to 90% of elder abusers are family members. Yet say "domestic violence" to most people, and they think of men abusing their wives and girlfriends. This image is reinforced by the domestic violence field, which typically serves only female victims, focusing particularly on women of childbearing or childrearing age.

Because the domestic violence field is so well-developed and has so many established communication methods, ASAAPS' scope does not include addressing domestic violence between non-disabled, younger adults. On the other hand, we recognize that the existing domestic violence system does not serve male victims well (or sometimes at all), and that many of the issues facing younger victims and survivors of domestic violence are the same as those facing older and/or disabled victims. Therefore, both younger domestic violence survivors and the professionals who serve them are welcome to join us if you feel ASAAPS membership will enhance your healing and/or service to others.

Who Our Staff Is

Loree Cook-Daniels is ASAAPS' founder and Executive Director. She has worked in the field of aging since 1974, serving in such positions as Legislative Assistant to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives' Select Committee on Aging and as a long-term care ombudsman. Cook-Daniels began staffing a tri-state committee on elder abuse in 1990, and went on to serve as the editor of the National Center on Elder Abuse Newsletter and as an analyst with the National Center on Elder Abuse. She is the founder and publisher of Adult Abuse Review , the Elder/Vulnerable Adult Abuse Newsfeed, and It Takes A Village.

Cook-Daniels was widowed by her life partner's suicide and is a survivor of both domestic violence and of stalking by members of an organized hate group. Her experience on multiple sides of the "victim" dynamic -- as a professional "helper," as a victim, and as a survivor -- informed the design and philosophy of ASAAPS.

Michael Munson is our Webmaster and Database Manager. He has been working on elder abuse public policy issues since 2001, when he and Cook-Daniels helped design, staff, facilitate, and report on the 2001 National Policy Summit on Elder Abuse and the 2002 Wisconsin Dementia and Aggressive/Abusive Behavior Summit. Munson is a longtime advocate for people with disabilities and gender and sexual minorities. He has now designed more than a dozen websites for disability and gender/sexual minority advocates and organizations.

ASAAPS Board of Directors

(Officers have not yet been chosen)

(Ms.) Jan Brown, Founder and Executive Director
Domestic Abuse Hotline for Men
Harmony, Maine

Joyce DeMonnin
Elder Safe Program
Hillsboro, Oregon

Max Higgs, Probate Judge
El Paso, Texas

(Ms.) Kim R. Hubbard
Financial Abuse Specialist Team Coordinator
Santa Ana, California

Susan Scanlan, Executive Director
Women’s Research and Education Institute
Washington, D.C.

Loree Cook-Daniels, Founder and Executive Director
American Society of Adult Abuse Professionals and Survivors
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Michael Munson, Founder and Executive Director
FORGE
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

About Our Terminology

Many of the laws that address the type of abuse ASAAPS addresses define the victims as "vulnerable adults" or "vulnerable elders." Usually this means that the person has disabilities or other chronic conditions that seem to make them less able to protect themselves from abuse than younger adults without disabilities.

Frankly, we don't like this language or the assumptions behind it. All of us -- of every physical and mental ability, age, and gender -- are "vulnerable" to becoming victims of domestic violence. Furthermore, domestic violence is by its very nature debilitating, and its younger victims may be no more able to "protect" themselves than its older and/or disabled victims.

Nevertheless, ASAAPS has chosen to focus on those populations typically covered by adult protective services laws. Usually we describe these populations as elders (to us a more respectful term than "old people" or "senior citizens"), and people with disabilities. Occasionally, for variety and to tighten prose, we use the term "disabled adults" or "disabled people" or even "vulnerable adults." When we do so, we recognize that despite the order of the words, individuals are people and adults first, and that being someone an abuser has targeted and/or living with a disability are only small parts of the complex, talented, wonderful individuals we are.

About Our Logos

ASAAPS' primary logo is still in development; return here when you see a new one on our home page for more information about it.

Our phoenix logo was very generously donated to ASAAPS by an anonymous New York artist. The myth of a phoenix rising reborn from the ashes of a fire symbolizes the potential we all have for not only recovering from the abuse we've experienced and/or witnessed, but also for using that experience to transform ourselves and our communities in life-enhancing ways.

How We Are Organized

To facilitate the launch and early development of the organization, ASAAPS is currently operated as a "for-profit" single-owner business. Our intention is to identify and nurture new leadership in the elder/disabled adult abuse field and to eventually evolve ASAAPS into a non-profit organization run by a board of directors. Until that time, if you are interested in being a member of our Advisory Board, please write Director@ASAAPS.org or call 414-540-6456 during regular business hours.

About Our Finances

The initial costs of conceptualizing and starting ASAAPS, building its website and communication structures, and publicizing the organization were donated by Loree Cook-Daniels and Michael Munson. We will periodically post here reports on how membership dues and subscription fees are being used.

Pictures

ASAAPS' booth at the 2005 American Society on Aging conference.

Other Questions?

Write us at Director@ASAAPS.org, or call us at 414-540-6456 during regular business hours.