Elder Abuse Conference
The 2026 Elder Abuse Conference covers a range of topics related to healthy aging for seniors, elder abuse case studies, and forms of elder abuse with prevention strategies.
We welcome seniors and professionals who assist seniors with the prevention of elder abuse.
Join us to learn how to better assist seniors and to further your education!
Annual Elder Abuse Conference
Thursday, June 4, 2026
8:45 AM – 3:30 PM
Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Abingdon, VA
Organized and Planned by the
Southwest Virginia Elder Justice Task Force
$40 FEE
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
All cancellations or attendance change requests received on or before Wednesday, May 20, 2026, will be honored for a refund minus a $15 administrative fee.
After May 20, no refund will be issued due to catering and location fees. You may transfer your registration to someone else for no additional fee.
You can submit any questions or requests regarding your registration to Gary Cody at gcody@svlas.org.
CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS
| Magistrates/Clerks | Magistrates/Clerks will submit their credit hours electronically through the e-Registration system after the conference. Their supervisors will then review and approve those credit hours. |
| Attorneys | Pending 6.0 credit hours by the Virginia Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board for Continuing Legal Credits |
| Guardian Ad Litem | Pending 6.0 credit hours |
| Law Enforcement | Pending 6.0 credit hours for Career Development and Cultural Diversity Credits |
| Adult Protection Services | APS workers will receive a certificate of attendance after the conference (with hours attended) to submit to their supervisor for approval of continuing education hours up to 4.0 credit hours. |
Certificate of Attendance available for all Attendees
A Special Thank You to Our Sponsors:
For more information, please contact:
GARY CODY
Southwest Virginia Legal Aid Society
Director of Outreach
email: gcody@svlas.org
phone: 276.783.8300, ext. 2011
About Our Presenters
Dr. Charles R. Figley, Ph. D.
Paul Henry Kurzweg, MD Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health and Director of the award-winning Traumatology Institute Tulane University
Charles Ray Figley was born in Chicago, grew up in Ohio, and joined the Marine Corps out of high school. His life has been about collaboration, cooperation, and innovation.
Dr. Figley became the Tulane University Paul Henry Kurzweg, MD Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health, and Director of the award-winning Traumatology Institute. Since his arrival at Tulane, he has served as co-founder of two graduate programs at Tulane connected with the School of Social Work and other departments: He served as Founding Program Director of the Master of Science (MS) degree program in Disaster Resilience Leadership and Founding Director of the City, Culture, and Community PhD Program in collaboration with the Department of Sociology, School of Social Work, and the School of Architecture.
He is a former professor at both Purdue University (1974-1989) and Florida State University (1989-2008) and former Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Kuwait University (2003-2004). He has published more than 200 referred journal articles and 29 books as a pioneer trauma scholar and practitioner. For example, he is the founding editor of the Journal of Traumatic Stress, the Journal of Family Psychotherapy, and the international journal, Traumatology. He is also Founding Editor of the Book Series Death and Trauma (Taylor & Francis), Innovations in Psychology (CRC Press), and continues to as Editor of the Psychosocial Stress Book Series (Routledge). As an indication of his esteem for the above work, Dr. Figley received the John Jay College of Criminal Justice honorary degree of doctor of letters, honoris causa.
Charles Figley has many passions for which he devotes both his personal and professional time. Among other passions is social justice with special focus on those overlooked. For example, consider his civic duty activities. This passion for helping others emerged in high school, continued during his service in the US Marine Corps, especially his war service in Vietnam. During his off hours he volunteered to work with the children at the Catholic orphanage and school. Figley posted a letter in the local newspaper in Lebanon, Ohio. The letter said simply that the kids needed school and personal hygiene supplies. Fortunately, his high school in Springboro, Ohio responded in a big way: The senior and junior class collected and shipped him several tons of school and hygiene supplies for the school children in Vietnam.
Throughout his career Dr. Figley has spent considerable time as a volunteer and as a scholar to help war and disaster survivors, secondary trauma survivors, and others who experienced traumatic stress injuries and deserve the best treatment possible. He continues his mental health promotion campaign focusing on military families, Native Americans, torture trauma survivors.
Professor Figley received his graduate degree from the Pennsylvania State University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii, all in the interdisciplinary field of human development. He and his wife, Dr. Kathleen Regan Figley, are devoted to their four grandchildren and their families while remaining engaged in their research and important social causes.
Joey Thacker
Co-Response Coordinator/Law Enforcement Liaison
New River Valley Community Services
Joey coordinates Co-Response in the Montgomery County and Radford areas, working with area Law Enforcement to better serve those in the New River Valley suffering from behavioral health issues. Joey also serves as the liaison between NRVCS and area Law Enforcement, helping solve any issues that arise in the ECO process. Joey has been with NRVCS for two years. Joey came to NRVCS with over twenty years of Law Enforcement and instruction experience. He has worked throughout the Commonwealth as a Police Officer/Deputy Sheriff. He has also worked at two Law Enforcement training academies. He has experience in patrol, crime scene investigation, school resource, SWAT, and is an instructor in various specialties.
Officer Melissa Cohen
Narrows Police Department
Officer Cohen has worked more than seventeen years in Law Enforcement, eleven years in England and over six years in the United States. She also served as a Midwife for a four-year period before moving the United States. Officer Cohen has worked for the Narrows Police Department since July 2025.
Ruthann Froberg, MPA
Research Associate at Education Development Center (EDC)
Center for Gerontology, Virginia Tech
Ruthann Froberg is a PhD Student in Human Development at Virginia Tech. She also serves as a Research Associate at the Education Development Center (EDC), where she works with the National Collaboratory to Address Elder Mistreatment on age-friendly care and elder mistreatment prevention, identification, and response. A published author, her work appears in journals such as the Academic Emergency Medicine, Health Policy and Economics, Innovation in Aging, and International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine. She is a regular presenter at the Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting.
Maria Spetalnik
Conquer the Clutter
Board Certified Professional Organizer (CPO®)
Maria Spetalnik is a Board-Certified Professional Organizer (CPO®) with over 30 years of experience specializing in Elders and severe clutter – including Hoarding. Maria has taught internationally about Chronic Disorganization and Hoarding to the FBI, Police Officers, Sheriffs, Adult Protective Services, Code Compliance Officers, Fire Marshals, Animal Control Officers, EMT’s, Social Services Departments, Therapists, Organizers, and others. She prides herself on being able to communicate these complex issues with clarity and humor. Past attendees have told her that they use her techniques regularly. Maria has written 3 books on hoarding with one more on the way.
Janine Myatt
Senior Assistant Attorney General, Health Care Fraud and Elder Abuse Section
Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Office of the Attorney General
Janine is a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia in the Abingdon Regional Office. Janine works in their Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MDCU) handling Medicaid Fraud and Elder Abuse cases. In the past, she has worked as a state court prosecutor in Sullivan County Tennessee, Washington County, Virginia and the City of Bristol, Virginia.
Since joining the MFCU, she has prosecuted corporations and individuals in both state and federal courts in Southwestern Virginia. She has been on teams that received awards from HHS-OIG for “Excellence in Promoting Quality, Safety and Value” in 2018, 2020, and 2021.
Janine received her Juris Doctor in 1994 from William & Mary and received her undergraduate degree from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1990.
Erin Thompson
Investigative Supervisor, Health Care Fraud and Elder Abuse Section
Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Office of the Attorney General
Erin joined the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) as an Investigator in 2010 and is currently the Investigative Supervisor in the Abingdon Regional Office. Since joining the unit, she has worked on numerous provider fraud cases involving Substance Abuse Treatment, Drug Distribution, Illegal Kickbacks, and many others.
Before beginning her work with the MFCU, Erin worked in other law enforcement roles with the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation and the Virginia Department of State Police.
Erin received her undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice from Bluefield College in Bluefield, Virginia, and her MBA from Averett University in Danville, Virginia.
Sloan Thompson
EndTAB, LLC
As EndTAB’s Director of Training and Education, Sloan Thompson is a nationally recognized speaker and trainer specializing in the intersection of technology, relationships, and safety. A leading voice on how artificial intelligence is reshaping intimacy; she facilitates workshops on topics such as AI and Healthy Masculinity and AI in Modern Dating. Sloan regularly provides EndTAB’s most popular presentations— such as Healthy Relationships & Breakups in the Digital Age and Emerging Issues in Digital Safety—at universities, nonprofits, and major conferences nationwide. Her expertise is frequently featured in media coverage of AI companions and digital safety trends. Before joining EndTAB, she served as a Violence Prevention Coordinator at UNC-Chapel Hill and as Training and Outreach Specialist with the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She holds an MFA in Directing from the University of British Columbia and a BA in Sociology from UNC-Chapel Hill.
“Guiding Communities through the Journey of Aging” – ANNUAL ELDER ABUSE CONFERENCE
Thursday, June 4, 2026, at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Presented by Southwest Virginia Legal Aid in collaboration with the Southwest Virginia Elder Justice Task Force
| 8:45 am | Welcome – Grand Hall Joey Carico, Executive Director, Southwest Virginia Legal Aid Society |
| 9:00 am | KEYNOTE: “Trauma Resilient Practitioners” – Grand Hall Dr. Charles R. Figley, Ph.D., Paul Henry Kurzweg, MD Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health and Director of the award-winning Traumatology Institute, Tulane University Presentation will examine how professionals who work with trauma survivors can sustain empathy without becoming overwhelmed. Drawing on decades of research in traumatology, Figley explains the dynamics of compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. He argues that resilience is not a fixed trait but a set of learnable practices. Key strategies include emotional regulation, peer support, reflective supervision, boundaries, spiritual or meaning-making practices, and structured recovery time. Figley emphasizes organizational responsibility alongside individual self-care, urging agencies to build cultures that normalize vulnerability, monitor stress exposure, and actively cultivate trauma-informed, resilience-supporting environments for long-term sustainability. |
| 10:15 am | Break & Session Change |
| 10:30 am | Breakout Sessions: (Choose 1 Room) “Hoarding – The Basics” – Grand Hall Maria Spetalnik, Conquer the Clutter, Board Certified Professional Organizer (CPO®) Hoarding is most often encountered by government officials and others as a surprise. You go to the house to check on someone’s welfare and find a home that cannot be entered or traversed safely. We will discuss what hoarding is, why it happens and how to keep your client safe. “Elderly Exploitation” – Room 103/104 Joey Thacker, Co-Response Coordinator, Law Enforcement Liaison, New River Valley Community Services & Officer Melissa Cohen, Narrows Police Department Elderly Exploitation is a crime that is on the rise in Virginia. There are different types of schemes that we will be speaking about. Some of these schemes are older trends but are still being used. Other schemes are newer and more popular with the reliance on technology to make purchases and pay bills. No matter what the scheme is, the elderly population is especially at risk. This presentation will concentrate on how to keep our elderly population safe from the predatory element. We will also speak about what to do if the worst happens and one of our elderly populations falls victim to a scheme. We have found that having an open honest conversation can prevent someone from falling for a scam, and we will talk about what that conversation can look like. |
| 11:45 am | Lunch Break – Grand Hall |
| 12:45 pm | Breakout Sessions (Choose 1 Room) “Medicaid Provider Fraud and Abuse of Vulnerable Adults” – Grand Hall Janine Myatt, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Health Care Fraud and Elder Abuse Section Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Office of the Attorney General & Erin Thompson, Investigative Supervisor, Health Care Fraud and Elder Abuse Section Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Office of the Attorney General A discussion of program fraud and abuse of vulnerable persons by Medicaid providers. “Exploring Problem Gambling Among Older Adults in Virginia” – Room 103/104 Ruthann Froberg, MPA, Research Associate at Education Development Center (EDC), Center for Gerontology, Virginia Tech Problem gambling, or gambling disorder, is a behavioral addiction characterized by recurrent and problematic gambling behavior that leads to significant distress or impairment (DSM-5). Between 70-80% of older adults have gambled in the past year (Patterson-Silver Wolf et al., 2015; Wiebe & Cox, 2005), and up to 20% of monthly casino visitors aged 65+ are at risk for problem gambling (Lichtenberg et al., 2009). Gambling is more prevalent among Baby Boomers than earlier cohorts (Thompson & McNeilly, 2016). Factors such as social isolation, loss, grief, depression, and PTSD can worsen late-life gambling issues (Blacke et al., 2021; Tira et al., 2014). Despite the severity of these co-occurring issues, little is known about remediating or screening for problem gambling among older adults (Pietrzak et al., 2005, Zhang et al. 2022). This presentation will describe the purpose and research methods of an ongoing project on older adult problem gambling patterns in Virginia conducted by the Virginia Partnership for Gaming and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the Virginia Tech Center for Gerontology. The presentation will explore implications of this work for service providers and community organizations who serve older adults experiencing problem gambling. |
| 2:00 pm | Break & Closing Session |
| 2:00 pm | CLOSING: “Catfishing and Impersonation Scams: Protecting and Supporting Elderly Victims” – Grand Hall Sloan Thompson, EndTAB, LLC, MFA, Directing, University of British Columbia, & BA in Sociology, UNC-Chapell Hill Older adults are increasingly targeted by online scams that exploit trust, emotional connection, and identity—often with devastating financial and psychological consequences. In this session, we will examine common forms of technology-facilitated fraud affecting older populations, including romance scams, sextortion, and catfishing, and how these schemes are increasingly being escalated using new AI technologies. Participants will learn how AI tools such as voice cloning, deepfake imagery, and automated messaging can make scams more convincing, harder to detect, and faster to spread. We will also discuss why older adults may be uniquely vulnerable, the emotional impacts that often accompany financial loss and betrayal, and practical strategies for recognizing warning signs, responding with empathy and dignity, supporting victims through recovery, and preventing future harm through education, digital boundary-building, and community awareness. |
| 3:30 pm | Call to Action – Grand Hall Gary Cody, Director of Outreach, Southwest Virginia Legal Aid Society |
Coming Soon…