Goals: describe the main goals of the good practice

1. Prevention through an informative action aimed to raise awareness among elderly on most common risk factors and risky situations.
2. Damage “reparation”, through: (1) an agreement with craftsman, like blacksmiths for instance, to repair, at controlled prices, damages made in the house, such as for example the change of a picked lock; (2) psychological support and assistance; (3) first medical aid and transport to the hospital, if necessary; (4) emotional support, solace and assistance to report the fact to the competent authority.
3. Damage containment through a number of coordinated services, such as: contacts with the local social services to activate temporary economical support or home care; emotional support through telephonic contacts in the weeks following the abuse; mediation with the police / law authorities to follow the development of the penal trial subsequent to the report.

Target Group: describe on which group the good practice is targeted (for instance, older people themselves, care providers, family etc.)

Lonely and/or disoriented elderly victims of violence and people victim of disinformation or incapable to orient themselves in the complexity of the modern societies.

Specifically, the service is targeted on lonely citizens belonging to the most exposed age group (over 65).

Approach: describe the way in which the good practice is implemented.

The service offers:

• Advisory on how to avoid or face  abuses, frauds and violence

• Support to victims through counselling and professional psychological support; support by volunteers to report the abuse to the police and make all the bureaucratic procedures following the abuse.

• Support of volunteers (also with home visits) to listen to the needs of victims and find appropriate solutions

• Information on rights and opportunities for elderly people offered by public and private services in the city 

• In case of urgent needs, activation of emergency services provided by volunteers  of association part of the network

• If a professional support is needed, local social and health care services are informed and activated. The help can be provided by professional social workers or by a group of volunteers that – supervised by the Municipality – provides the so called “light home care services” (i.e. friendly visits or phone calls, shopping together or on behalf of the elderly, transports to the doctor or to other services…). These volunteers also have the aim to “monitor” the neighbourhood and inform the social services about potentially dangerous situations (such as elderly left alone by family members).

The service operates every day, 7 days a week, from 09 am to 5 pm. During the daytime phone calls are received directly by the Elderly Help Service. It is however possible to call 24 hours a day – when the office is closed phone calls are received by the Local Police Corps^[i].

When the service was launched, a letter was sent to all elderly citizens and informative leaflets where distributed all round the city (at Social Services, pharmacies, MDs, post offices, banks and public transport. Local medias also contributed to inform about the service. Finally, information about the service were printed on the milk boxes of the local Milk Central.

As the time went by, the leaflet has been revised, updated and distributed again together with the booklet “ 10 advices for your safety” which provides suggestions on how to prevent abuses. It was distributed also in places where elderly gathers, such as civic centres, churches and bowling greens^[ii].

Since its start, the service has registered (of course respecting privacy rules) all the requests (either coming by phone, mail or personally) in journals where operators register what has been done every day. Moreover, for elderly victims of abuse, exist a personal file which contains the chronicle of all is done to support him / her.

Who implements this good practice? Mention, if relevant, the organisation or persons who do the work.

The service has a director nominated by the Municipality. Currently, it’s a psychologist (Dr. Carlo Maria Gioria).

The call centre is managed by a group of volunteers (coming from local NGOs) that coordinates other volunteers working on the field and providing the various services.

All volunteers are trained about their role, on how to communicate with elderly and how to manage a help-relationship.

Periodically there are meetings of the whole staff, where emerging problems and emotional difficulties are discussed.

Incoming and outgoing calls are registered in the journal, together with answers provided, scheduled meeting, involved volunteers.

When an abuse is reported, volunteers visit the elderly at home, in order to better understand his/her needs and – supervised by the Service - assure the urgent support.

Then the case is discussed in a meeting between the staff of the service and the volunteer that has visited the elderly at home. All available information are gathered, needs are detected, goals are settled and an action plan is made, defining actions to undertake and human resources to involve. 

As mentioned, everything is done (actions, updates, conclusions) are registered in a personal file.

Apart from these activities, that relies directly to the Service, the EHS works closely with the Local Police and Social Services.

As long as the Police is concerned, besides of answering to incoming calls during the night and when the Service is closed, it’s important to mention the exchange of information, useful to the victim – when abuses occur – but also in a prevention perspective. For instance, the neighbourhood police is alerted in case of domestic violence or “apartment house violence” with the aim to mediate the conflict.

The EHS also cooperates with Carabinieri^[iii](that address to the EHS elderly people in need of support they meet during their activities). The same happens with the local State Police Stations, as well as with the Police flying squad.

Finally, the EHS also works with the Public Prosecutor's Office / Vulnerable victims section.

What material is available on this good practice (description, website etc.)

The website of the EHS (in Italian):

www.comune.torino.it/aiutoanziani

A full report on the project (in Italian):

www.comune.torino.it/aiutoanziani/rassicuranziani.pdf

Informative leaflets and the “10 advices for your safety” booklet (in Italian):

www.comune.torino.it/vigiliurbani/sicurezza-urbana/pdf/opuscolo.pdf

How widely is this good practice used in your country?

Initially the service concerned only the Municipality of Turin (910.000 inhabitants). From 2001 to 2003 the project  was experimentally extended to nine neighbourhood municipalities (Collegno, Grugliasco, Candiolo, La Loggia, Moncalieri, Nichelino, None, Trofarello, Vinovo).

The EHS experience served as a model for several other municipalities (Rome^[iv], Milan, Florence, Genova, Palermo, Parma, Monza, Treviso) that, through the years, contacted the Service to ask for information on a transferability perspective.

Even the Censis (Italian National Socio-Economic Research Centre) understood the relevance of the project and visited the Service with the aim to collect documentation (data, methods and tools) for eventual future European projects.

In 2002 there had been an International Conference on Elder Abuse in Treviso and the Service was invited to present its case.  Following to this conference, the Service was visited in 2003 by an European delegation of representative from the European Forum for Victim Services and INAVEM (France), with the aim to compare the Turin experience with those from other EU countries.

The University of Turin has selected the EHS as a destination for internships of psychology students.

What are the results, outcomes, experiences with this good practice? Please mention the source(s).

Concerning prevention,  the 15,98% of cases met by the Services  were requests of support resulting from attempted crimes that, nevertheless, caused significant psychic traumas in the elderly – especially if lonely. In these cases, the Service provided advices for the future and company through regular phone calls.

Moreover, the Service takes notice of risky situations (such as relational problems with family members or the neighbourhood, urban blight, withdrawal of money from the bank or the post by a lonely elderly etc...). In these cases, the Service involved the Neighbourhood Police with the aim of monitoring the situation.

Generally speaking, in 10 years of activity (from September 1998 to September 2008 – the latest publication of data) the Service had been contacted by over 9.000 people. It's important to say, though, that not all of these contacts concerned abuses, since a percentage of people called to ask for information about “the planet elderly” (social services, complaints about public services...)

Calls concerning abuses (or attempted abuses) were about 2.000.

Concerning results:

Analysis made on collected data, show that the main “partner in crime” of abusers is solitude. It is therefore necessary to prevent aging to become synonymous of isolation. To reach this aim, according to the EHS, “the society should promote initiatives that actively involve elderly people and enhance their potentialities. Such activities could reach the double goal of keeping in good health, physically and mentally, the elderly and – because of this – make it easier for them to unmask frauds or attempt of abuse.

Another important support could be provided by relatives and neighbours who can support and safeguard the elderly. In fact, a strong sense of belonging to a community and a good network of relationships are excellent antidotes to depression and sense of unsafeness. Neighbours are of special importance for lonely elderly. In fact, they could feel safer if they know they can count on their neighbours in case of need. On the other hand, neighbours can pay attention to changes in the elderly daily routine: noting if he/she is accompanied by someone never saw before or not seeing him / her opening the windows at the usual time should led the neighbour to ask himself what's happening and – with an excuse and without infringing on his privacy – “to pokehis nose a little into other people’s business”.

According to the EHS: “This investment on relationships should be a political issue, impacting transversally family policies, social economy, urban planning... with a view to favour human relationships especially towards the most frail groups. An investment on relationships should be incentivised since relations are a “good” that can't be stolen.”

In terms of impact: it is important to mention that several media had shown interest for the EHS initiative: local and national newspapers and tvs (including russian and a german sat tvs) made reportages about the project. On the other hand, the national public channels Rai 1 and Rai 3  – during an awareness rising campaign on frauds against elderly – talked about the Service, thus disseminating information on this experience. Several shows (to which the director of the Service was invited) have discussed about elder abuse with the aim to provide information to prevent it.

Are there effect studies? Please mention the source(s) if the answer is ‘yes’.

No.

What are the success factors?

Basically the close cooperation between Social Services and Local Police.

The police is the institution “in a uniform”, a symbol of the strength of the institution, that recalls the capacity to protect and punish of public corps. A uniform, but a uniform of proximity: it's a Local Police and therefore strongly settled in the territory, near and accessible..

Social services, on the other hand, are the symbol of support, an institution you can rely upon when in need.

Moreover, the Service is constantly available (24/24 7/7) and therefore credible and able to overcome the sense of solitude and abandonment frequent in elderly people, especially those living in metropolitan areas.