WYOMISSING, Pa. \u2013 As more Pennsylvanians age, officials say there is much more to adult protective services cases these days.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why the Pennsylvania Department of Aging announced that Berks, Lancaster and Lehigh counties are taking things another step further.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy announcing that five area agencies on aging and a coalition among the [Area Agencies on Aging] network and their committed partners will receive expert consulting to support and develop multidisciplinary teams to coordinate services, build better responses, and collectively serve our wisest neighbors in the best way we possibly can,\u201d state Secretary of Aging Jason Kavulich said.<\/p>\n
The teams will bring together social services, law enforcement, medical professionals and legal experts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been nearly 40 years since the last substantial update of the Older Adult Protective Services Act. The act does not even include financial exploitation, the fastest-growing form of abuse in Pennsylvania,\u201d Kavulich said.<\/p>\n
Local leaders say working regionally will make a difference.<\/p>\n
Berks County Area Agency on Aging Director Jessica Jones says collaboration will strengthen outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy combining our collective knowledge and skills, we will be better positioned to tackle complex cases and challenges and offer well-rounded solutions,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Berks County Commissioner Chair Christian Leinbach said this kind of collaboration is key.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegionalization is where it’s at, and this is another way that we partner and better protect one of the most vulnerable populations in our communities,\u201d Leinbach said.<\/p>\n
State officials say the effort is designed to better protect older Pennsylvanians as cases grow more complex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WYOMISSING, Pa. \u2013 As more Pennsylvanians age, officials say there is much more to adult protective services cases…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[55504,55506,349,23290,23305,3685,433,55505,128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-116766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-adult-protective-services","9":"tag-aging-population","10":"tag-berks-county","11":"tag-elder-abuse","12":"tag-financial-exploitation","13":"tag-lancaster-county","14":"tag-lehigh-county","15":"tag-multidisciplinary-teams","16":"tag-reading-city","17":"tag-reading-city-headlines","18":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}