Thank you for your interest in Michigan’s Elder Abuse Task Force (EATF) – an alliance representing more than 55 different organizations in the public, private and non-profit sectors – all working together to reduce barriers facing our aging population.
Please take a few minutes to catch up on what the Task Force has been up to since our last issue in May 2025.
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A powerful package of legislation is moving through the Michigan Legislature, and it’s poised to significantly improve the way we protect older adults and vulnerable individuals across the state. These proposed laws target elder abuse from every angle: personal safety, financial exploitation, organized crime, and community collaboration.
This legislation creates a patient surrogate consent statute to help families make health care decisions and reduce the need for hospitals to go to court. This legislation comes out of a subcommittee of the Elder Abuse Task Force. The primary purpose is to reduce the number of emergency guardianships by granting the legal authority to approve treatment to family members in the absence of any legal documents.
Specifically, HBs 4418-4419 amend the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC) to add a new Part 6 to Article V (protection of individuals under disability and their property) to enable certain individuals to make healthcare decisions on behalf of a patient when the patient is unable to do so on their own behalf and does not have a patient advocate designation in place, or the designated patient advocate is unavailable to fulfill that role. The legislation also does the following:
These user-friendly forms were prepared by the Kimble Center for Legal Drafting at Cooley Law School. The forms make it easier for Michigan residents and their family members to appoint a trusted individual to make important financial and medical decisions on their behalf if they become unable to do so.
In 2024, the Elder Abuse Task Force successfully advocated for legislation that updated Michigan’s Power of Attorney statute under the Uniform Power of Attorney Act. Attorney General Nessel recently released a public service announcement explaining the new law. While the law includes a statutory form, it is not downloadable or fillable. The forms provided by the Kimble Center for Legal Drafting are fully compliant with the new statute.
The newly available forms include:
More than 100,000 older adults in Michigan are victims of elder abuse. They experience abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Michigan residents seeking elder abuse resources are encouraged to call 800-24-ABUSE (22873), or 855-444-3911 to report suspected elder abuse.
The Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan Elder Justice Project is pleased this year to be partnering with Muskegon SafeSeniors, AgeWell Services, and MDHHS to present the 2025 Michigan Elder Justice Conference. This 2-day event will be held in Spring Lake, MI on September 23-24, 2025. We have several excellent speakers on hand to present on topics ranging from guardianship reform to some of the common scams we are seeing. We also have several breakout sessions designed for all professionals who work with vulnerable adults.
The registration fee for the 2-day event is $50.00. Please scan the QR code or visit PAAM’s website for more information and to register. Spots are limited, so book sooner rather than later. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
The Michigan Guardianship Diversion Project (MGDP), a project of Michigan Elder Justice Initiative, seeks to help people at risk of guardianship continue to make decisions for themselves. In Bay County, the project has helped dozens of people avoid guardianship by connecting them to services and legal options that solve important problems in their lives. As a result, in the first year of the project, the number of guardianships in Bay County was reduced by 42%.
Although funding for the project will end in December, Bay County Department on Aging has applied for a grant to carry on and expand the project. Both the Department of Aging and Probate Court Judge Jan Miner have been vital and eager partners in the project. They and their community partners are already working hard to create an ongoing regional model.
In a recent case, an older woman with a cognitive impairment and a history of evictions was referred by the probate court to the MGDP. The woman reported she was facing eviction from a shelter and had been repeatedly scammed by individuals who posed as landlords on Facebook. Working with the woman and her caseworker, MGDP Co-Coordinator Laura Kubit earned the woman’s trust, helped identify her goals, and supported her search for stable housing. Laura persuaded a professional representative payee to accept her case, helped her apply for Social Security, and coached her how to avoid scams in the future. With a representative payee in place, more income, and the education and support to stop falling prey to scammers, she is on her way to stable housing and a more confident and secure life without guardianship.
MGDP looks forward to continuing to help other individuals find solutions to their challenges, connect with community resources, and avoid guardianship whenever possible. The project is also continuing to work in Genesee, Muskegon, and Grand Traverse counties through the end of the year.
Theft is nothing new. How that is accomplished can range from strong armed robbery to complex financial exploitation schemes. One of the more common methods that has risen to prominence over the last few decades is the idea of the “quick hit” scams, where offenders seek to create a scenario in a brief time that tricks the victim into delivering to them something of value. These take many forms like “the grandparents scam” or the “you owe the IRS,” to name a few. While these offenses can be attempted upon anyone, we do see them targeting the vulnerable adult population more often. Reviewing some of the basic psychology behind how these scams are designed is helpful to appreciating why some victims may fall for them, and moreover, assist in successfully prosecuting those who perpetrate them domestically.
To understand the mechanics of the scam, it is necessary to journey into the world of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and discuss the three basic states of mind of Emotion Mind, Reasonable Mind, and Wise Mind:
DBT asserts that the proper balance state of mind is ideally that of Wise Mind. In that mindset, we are able to balance the emotional needs of the moment with the facts necessary to make a “good decision.” Outside factors can cause us to drift out of Wise Mind and make it more likely that we are making decisions that we may later regret.
Another behavioral concept at play during a scam deals with how we respond to threats and anxiety provoking events. The Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn stress responses are part of the body’s automatic defense system, hardwired in our brains and designed to keep us alive when confronted with a threat. See Fight, Flight, Freeze, Or Fawn: How We Respond to Threats, by Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc. Published June 23, 2025. Unlike the Fight/Flight response that causes us to either meet the threat or run from it, the Freeze/Fawn stress responses are those that do not involve decisive actions. Id. Freeze causes you to feel stuck in place, akin to a “dear in the headlights,” while the Fawn response drives us to please or appease the threat in order to avoid the conflict or perceived harm. Id. The fawn response is the one targeted by scams, because the victim is motivated by a desire to agree to the demands in order to quell the threat and thereby relieve the anxiety that comes with it.
Consider these concepts in the context of a common attempt known as “The Grandparent Scam.” A person receives a call or text message that purports to be their grandchild, and further, that they are in a state of distress (i.e. – wrongly in jail and unable to reach anyone else). They are begging their grandparent for support, for assistance, for necessary funds that will get them to a place of safety. The victim is being pushed into Emotion Mind based on the fraudulent belief that their loved one is in crisis, and further, that this crisis needs immediate action that only they can provide. With the emotions of fear and anxiety controlling the thoughts, the Fawn response causes the victim to pay whatever amount is requested in order to save their beloved grandchild. Were the victim in a place of Wise Mind, they might be able to check the facts and realize that if they just hung up the phone/ignored the text and reached out to their grandchild on a number they know to be valid, they would realize the child is just fine and in no danger whatsoever, and as such, reveal the scam for what it is. Breaking free of the emotion of the scenario though can be difficult, which is exactly what offenders are exploiting.
People who have been victimized in these offenses sometimes feel embarrassed for “falling for this.” However, such feelings ignore the deeply rooted emotional and psychological responses that are automatic in each and every one of us and further ignores how difficult it can be at that moment to break free of those responses. Victims may be unaware of the reality that they have been presented with a manufactured set of circumstances designed to push them into Emotion Mind, and then having had their fawn response triggered. Once out of the stress of the emotions of the moment, they then realize they have been deceived, and are left to wonder “how did it happen to me?” The answer, though, is the same as any other criminal offense, which is that the criminal actions of the offender are not the victim’s fault. By understanding these factors, in the event that we are able to identify the offenders and bring charges, we can effort to hold the offenders accountable for targeting the victims in our respective communities.
