By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON — Combating elder abuse has been a big emphasis of Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt during his tenure in that post and he highlighted some ways the Kansas Legislature came to the aid of older Kansans in an interview with Hutch Post this week.
"They created a statute that encourages and enables the creation of what they call multidisciplinary teams to combat elder abuse all around the state," Schmidt said. "This is a concept that's well proven and it's pretty common sense. The basic idea is everybody who works on part of the problem, whether they are law enforcement, prosecutors, social workers, volunteers, other community leaders, whatever it may be, they come together around a table periodically and they compare notes on cases to make sure that the right hand and the left hand are coordinated across disciplines, multi disciplines."
These groups have worked well in the state's urban areas, but because of jurisdictional issues, this legislation was needed to make the functions work better in the rural parts of the state. Also, the Legislature has given the laws against abusing elderly people more teeth.
"They actually raised the criminal penalties and lengthened the prison terms for people who abuse," Schmidt said. "Mistreatment of an elder person is a crime. Again, I think it's going to be a very useful tool in trying to combat elder abuse and bring to justice those who commit it."
Schmidt also joined a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general in a letter to the U.S. Senate urging passage of H.R. 1215, known as the “Stop Senior Scams Act.” The measure, which has passed the U.S. House and has 21 sponsoring senators, would provide innovative ways to combat the financial exploitation of seniors.