Elder Financial Protection Networks Study

Interview Guide for Network Members
INTRODUCTIONS (use informed consent form as guide for step 1 through 3)
1. Describe objectives of the research; remind participants that there are no right or wrong answers;
encourage them to provide their opinions even if different from those of others.
2.

Explain note-taking and recording of the session.

3.

Provide copies of informed consent forms for signature.

INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
In this conversation, we will be using the word “network” to refer to the collaborative
organization of which you are a member.
1. We would like to get an overview of your network’s formation and development.
For how long have you been involved in this network?
What specific role(s) do you play?
When and why was your network created?
Which organizations or individuals were instrumental in its formation?
Has your network experienced changes with respect to its goals/objectives, membership, and
leadership, or in other ways?
Does your network focus on general elder abuse or exclusively on financial exploitation? If the
latter, has your network developed expertise in a specific type of financial abuse?
What motivated your network to address financial exploitation? Did you begin with financial
exploitation as a focus or expand to include financial exploitation later?
Does your network have a specific geographic/population target?
2. We would like to discuss the characteristics of your network: membership, leadership,
resources, meetings, internal communication, conflict management/resolution, and learning
and adaptability.
Membership: We would like to learn more about the members of your network.
How did your network decide on which members to include when it was starting up?
What is the basis of membership? Is membership by individual, agency, expertise, community
influence, etc.?

In your view, who are the core, secondary, and tertiary partners today?
How are these differences in membership manifested in time committed, roles, and
responsibilities in the network?
How are new partners recruited? Are they vetted, or is membership open?
Are you interested in involving new members? If so, what new members would you like to
involve? Why?
Does your network exclude any categories of members? Why?
Leadership: We would like to learn more about who leads and influences the network and why.
What was the basis of the network’s leadership choice?
What individuals or organizations within the network do you see as most influential? Why?
Resources: We would like to know more about the network’s available resources.
What resources does the network have?
Does the network have (a) a grant, (b) other funding sources, (c) full-time or part-time staff, (d)
volunteers, (e) computers or other equipment, (f) dedicated office space, and/or (g) other
resources?
Meetings: We would like to learn more about the network’s meetings.
How frequently does the network meet?
For what purposes does the network meet?
How are decisions reached at meetings? Do you vote?
In your opinion, how well-attended are meetings?
Does the network meet in other locations?
Do members designate back-ups to attend meetings?
Internal communication: We would like to hear about the network’s internal communications.
How does the network communicate decisions and share information? e.g., listserv?
Conflict management/resolution
What kinds of issues are most challenging for the network to manage/resolve?

Do you experience communication challenges arising from members having their own
specialized languages? If so, how do you deal with this challenge?
Do differences in individual organization goals ever interfere with network goals?
Does the network encounter jurisdictional issues? If so, how do you resolve these issues?
Does the network encounter issues related to the handling of privacy and partner misconduct? If
so, how does the network handle these issues?
Learning and adaptability: We would like to hear about the network’s strategies for learning
and adapting to new developments in the field.
Does the network have mechanisms for internal learning, such as focus groups, surveys,
evaluations, etc.?
How does the network stay informed about and adapt to developments in the field of financial
exploitation?
In what way, if any, has the network involved researchers and academics?
What are the challenges of developing expertise in the field of elder financial exploitation?
3. We would like to know more about your network’s activities, especially in the areas of
advocacy, education/training, case referral and case review, prosecution, and victim
support.
Which of these activities is your network engaged in? [Only ask questions about the activities in
which the network says it is involved.]
Education and training: Let’s talk about education and training activities.
Who in the network provides education and training?
What kind(s) of education and training does the network provide?
Who are the targets of your network’s education and training? Consumers? Professionals?
Agencies? Other organizations? Please specify.
What value do you see in or derive from undertaking education and training activities?
Have you observed any changes as a result of your education and training activities?
What are the challenges of introducing/sustaining education and training?
Advocacy: Let’s talk about your activities related to advocacy, policy, and systems change.

What is the focus of your network’s advocacy activities? Do you try to change laws, regulations,
and/or policies?
Who in the network usually plays this role? Does any specific member or organization take
responsibility for advocacy?
Who is the usual target of your advocacy activities?
What value does your network see in or derive from these activities?
Have you seen any changes as a result of your network’s advocacy activities?
What would you call your network’s greatest victory?
Case referral and case review: Let’s talk about case review or consultation.
What are the challenges of doing case review?
What would you say is the value of having case review by multiple agencies and experts as
compared with a single agency?
Do you think case review by multiple agencies and experts has specific benefits compared to
case review by a single agency (e.g., referrals, protocols, reporting, detection of cases,
prevention)?
Does case review by multiple agencies and experts have any challenges that case review by a
single agency would not have?
Prosecution: Let’s talk about prosecution. Not all collaborative efforts work together in this
activity.
Which members of this network are involved in the prosecution process? How are they involved?
What are the challenges of having prosecution as part of the network’s activities?
Aside from prosecuting cases, are there other ways in which the network connects with
prosecutors?
Victim support: Let’s turn to another key activity of many networks—helping victims of
financial exploitation become “survivors.”
How does your network engage in victim support?
Is there a particular aspect of victim support that your network emphasizes (e.g., restitution,
relocation, court assistance, other support)?
What are the challenges of engaging in victim-support activities?

4. Many networks have created useful products, such as newsletters, videos, training
manuals, issue briefs, and so forth. We would like to hear about products that your
network has created.
What kind of products has the network created?
Who created the products? Why were they created? Who is the target audience?
Were these products externally funded?
Are these products available free, or does your network sell them? If the latter, do the sales
generate a significant portion of the network’s revenue? Please specify.
Which products are you most proud of? Why?
5. We would like to hear about the benefits of your collaboration and your assessment of
the effectiveness of your network.
What are the network’s benefits?
How does collaboration help to reduce, address, or prevent financial exploitation?
How do financially exploited elders benefit from your collaboration?
How do key agencies benefit?
How would you assess the network’s progress toward meeting its goals?
What would make the network more effective in meeting its goals?
6. We would like to learn about the critical ingredients required for the formation, ongoing
operation, and effectiveness of your network.
What were the critical ingredients for the start-up of the network?
Could you discuss and indicate the importance for the start-up of your network of (a) leadership,
(b) funding, and/or (c) other factors?
What have been the critical ingredients for sustaining the network’s operations?
Could you discuss and indicate the importance for the continuation of your network of leadership,
resources (staff time, volunteers, budget, equipment, and office space), key partners,
organization/administration, expertise, funding, and/or other factors)?
What are the critical ingredients for your network’s effectiveness (or for the effectiveness of any
network)?
Is your network missing any critical ingredients?

What do you see as your network’s biggest challenge going forward?
7. There is increasing pressure from funders and government for organizations to
demonstrate outcomes with data. We would like to know more about the data that your
network gathers and the measures of success your network uses.
What data does the network gather and for what purposes?
Who in the network collects data?
Is the data collected used to measure the network’s success/effectiveness? If not, why not?
Is there data that would be useful to gather but is not collected? If so, why is the data not
collected now?
How does the network measure success?
Have you identified ways in which these measures might be improved?
Has the network had evaluations (internal/external)?
If yes, did the evaluations affect the network’s operation in any way?
8. We are interested to learn in what ways the network has had an impact on clients,
agencies, the community, and the field of elder financial exploitation.
Please discuss the major impact that you believe the network has had on clients, agencies, the
community, and/or the field of elder financial exploitation.
9. In many states, laws and regulations may have an important influence on how networks
form, operate, and perform.
Was the creation of your network affected by law or mandate? If so, what aspects of your
network have been most affected by law? Has the law/mandate affected the network’s
composition? Has the law/mandate required the network to develop protocols?
Are there specific laws/mandates that make the operation of your network easier or more
difficult? In what way(s)?
CLOSING CONVERSATION
1. In closing, we would like to ask whether there is anything about your network that we have
not asked but that you would like to share with us.
2. Out of everything we have discussed today, is there any characteristic or aspect of your
network that you would like to highlight or re-emphasize?

Great. Well, that is the last of our questions for you. Do you have any questions for us?
Now for a few administrative matters:
As mentioned previously, the audio recordings of our conversation will be transcribed, and you
will have the opportunity to review the transcript. If interested, you will have about 5 business
days to review the transcript, delete any information that makes you uncomfortable, and send the
transcript back to us. You may also take that opportunity to add clarifications or additional
information.
As a reminder, while we will not use your name in the report or publish the audio recordings, we
plan to generically attribute ideas to a particular professional or organization within the network,
for example APS in Johnson County, Colorado . Therefore, people may be able to attribute ideas
or directly to you by name or inference. Would you like us to send you the transcript for review
once we receive it? (Re-visit consent and obtain/confirm contact information.)
Also, may we contact you by email and/or phone for clarifications as we review our notes?
Thank everyone for their time. End the interview.