Weinberg Center Expands Elder Abuse Support to NYC Family Justice Centers

For nearly two decades, the Weinberg Center for Elder Justice has served as a model for protecting older New Yorkers from harm. It’s now expanded its reach into city-run Family Justice Centers.

In October, the Weinberg Center, located on the RiverSpring campus, partnered with the city to broaden it’s the city to broaden the Service Provider Elder Abuse Coordination Helpline, or SPEACH. The program connects frontline advocates at Family Justice Centers, or FJCs, with elder-abuse specialists who advise on the medical, legal and social complexities unique to aging victims.

Family Justice Centers, operated by the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, are one-stop hubs where domestic violence survivors can access resources like counseling, legal aid and NYPD assistance without navigating multiple agencies. Embedding elder-abuse expertise there, advocates say, is a long-overdue step. 

“What we’re really trying to emphasize is that elder abuse is a kind of domestic violence and it deserves and needs attention,” said Deirdre Lok, director and managing attorney of the Weinberg Center. “It’s incredibly underreported. Yet we know it’s happening and it exists.”

Founded in 2005 at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, the Weinberg Center launched the nation’s first shelter-based model for older adults experiencing abuse — aimed at seniors who may be unsafe at home but have medical or cognitive needs that make traditional domestic-violence or homeless shelters unsuitable. Its multidisciplinary team of attorneys, social workers and medical professionals provides tailored services like legal guidance and long-term case management for older New Yorkers.

“We really, over the years, learned from our clients how necessary it is to pull in the legal component to address elder abuse, how important it is to pull in the medical component to address elder abuse, and how important it is to have the supportive trauma-informed services,” Lok said. 

The city’s five Family Justice Centers, one in each borough, now have access to the helpline, following a successful pilot at its Manhattan location last year.

Those complexities often blur the boundaries of traditional domestic-violence work. In 2022, the NYPD recorded more than 19,000 domestic-incident reports involving victims over 60 but estimates suggest that only one in 24 older adults who experience abuse ever report it.

Many rely on the same people who hurt them for housing, groceries, medication or companionship. Others live with cognitive or mobility challenges that make it difficult to reach out for help. Some, Lok noted, stay silent out of love, fear or shame.

“Family members are sadly most often perpetrators of harm,” Lok said.  Many people don’t go the criminal justice path when it’s a family member, especially when it’s a child.”

Abuse can take many forms, including coercive control, sexual assault, or financial exploitation. The last, Lok said, can go unnoticed for years through coerced signatures or forged checks. Emotional abuse often follows close behind — humiliation, threats or isolation from friends and community.

Because age and health intersect with dependency, older survivors’ paths to safety can look very different.

“It can be far more complicated,” Lok said. “What’s at stake isn’t only safety — it’s housing, caregiving, independence. You can’t separate one from the other.”

At the Weinberg Center, Rachael Domanico, a licensed clinical social worker, said the helpline is transforming how FJC advocates respond.

“When an older client comes in, there are layers — chronic illness, cognitive decline, fear of losing independence,” she said. “Now, instead of referring them out, we can connect with advocates at Family Justice Centers in real time. Together, we figure out a plan that protects the client without cutting them off from care.”

Bernie Lubell, senior director of communications for the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, said expanding the helpline citywide strengthens the advocates’ abilites to identify, respond and more fully understand elder abuse clients and their cases.

“We see a wide range of elder abuse survivors,” he said. “Some are abused by caretakers, their adult children, their spouses, or significant others. In some cases, strangers have taken advantage of our clients. In every case, we are committed to providing the support and resources necessary for our clients to heal, whatever that may look like to them.”

For the Weinberg Center, the collaboration bridges a long-standing divide between the domestic violence and aging services systems.

“This partnership acknowledges the reality we’ve been seeing for decades,” Lok said. “Older adults experience the same patterns of control and fear as any survivor. The difference is the world isn’t always ready to see it.”