OVERVIEW:
Senior citizens love their libraries, support their libraries, and urge their elected and appointed officials to keep their libraries open and even press them to build new ones. Your library may have specific programs for senior patrons and you recognize and nurture those relationships with the ones who come to your library most often.
If you meet and greet seniors at your library facility, you may also have some concerns about their mobility, cognitive issues, and physical safety. Worse yet, elderly people are frequent victims of financial abuse from unscrupulous family members; “caregivers” (who steal from or physically abuse the person, instead of giving supportive, nurturing care); or strangers who became their “new best friend.” This session is all about building your awareness toward physical, cognitive, and abuse possibilities with our senior patrons.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Talking to elderly patrons with cognitive issues.
- Preventing falls or other injuries inside the library.
- Assessing potential caregiver abuse.
- Being a Mandated Reporter: working with Adult Protective Services (APS).
- Identifying a potential “sweetheart scam.”
This 60-minute overview session on how to respond step-by-step to service situations in the library is another in our “Essential Librarian Series,” designed to be shown to new staff and leaders and to provide a refresher for all who work in the library, and hosted by trainer, author, and library service, safety, and security expert, Dr. Steve Albrecht. A handout copy of the presentation slides will be available to all who participate.
About the Speaker
DR. STEVE ALBRECHT. Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, security, and supervision. His programs are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace with all types of patrons. In 2015, the ALA published his book, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities. He is currently writing the sequel, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure, for Rowman & Littlefield. Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Psychology. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment. He has written 24 books on business, security, and leadership topics. He lives with six dogs, two cats, and three chickens. (Not all in the same room, of course.)
