Long-term care providers and their staff members can turn to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office for Older Americans for several research and educational resources, Assistant Director Deborah Royster said in a webinar Wednesday. Those resources, in turn, can help residents and their families.

“We create tools and resources to help consumers make sound financial decisions as they age, and we help stakeholders by providing tools for long-term financial security for older adults,” Royster said.

In addressing what  Deputy Assistant Director Michael Herndon called “the groundhog day that is the pandemic,” he said that the office “continues to produce materials for consumers and other types of intermediaries around all the issues that continue to come up.”

Topics include reverse mortgages, powers of attorney, avoiding financial scams and other topics of interest to senior living and skilled nursing residents, other older adults and their families. 

“There’s a lot of great information around reverse mortgages so people can really understand home equity as they age,” for instance, Herndon said.

“One of our programs that we have for fraud prevention is our networks program, and that is an effort to help communities collaborate together to enable better prevention and then respond to instances of elder financial exploitation,” he added. 

The Office for Older Americans provides a network development guide to help organizations start up and expand a network, and perhaps host a retreat and foster communication.

“It can serve as a great resource for people who want to take on a different type of fraud prevention effort,” Herdon said.

Free bulk print materials, such as brochures and placemats, on a variety of topics are available from the Government Printing Office or can be downloaded for free. The government pays for the shipping costs as well. Resources there include a guide for nursing homes and assisted living communities on what they can do to help prevent elder financial exploitation.

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