UW-Green Bay & Wisconsin Elder Justice Coalition Release Financial Abuse Specialist Team Toolkit
To counteract rising incidents of financial exploitation among the elderly in Wisconsin, UW-Green Bay and the Wisconsin Elder Justice Coalition have released a Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST) toolkit. The toolkit aims to fortify community efforts across the state by encouraging and equipping FASTs with critical information and resources.
A FAST is a multidisciplinary team in a county or region composed of businesses, organizations, and agencies invested in the financial security of older adults. The purpose of the team is to prevent financial abuse and exploitation and to improve the system’s capacity to respond to the needs of victims in accessing support, advocacy and services.
With the release of this toolkit, the Wisconsin Elder Justice Coalition has set a goal to establish five pilot teams across the state by September 2025 with each team strategically located within one of the five Adult Protective Services (APS) regions. Currently, Wisconsin’s four active FASTs cover only two of these regions. With the state’s elderly population increasing by 32% in the last decade, the need for additional support in all regions is more critical than ever.
“Financial Abuse Specialist Teams (FASTs) are very much needed,” said Better Business Bureau Senior Director of Investigations and Media Relations, Lisa Schiller. “Creating teams of people from different backgrounds that come together, collaborate and offer input from their varying areas of expertise has proven to be an important and worthwhile enterprise. The teams address important issues and provide invaluable information and objectives regarding those matters and areas of concern that affect our most vulnerable population.”
