Countywide : D.A. to Use Grants to Help Elderly

Grant money allocated this month to the Ventura County district attorney’s office will allow the Victim Services Division to expand the scope of counseling provided to crime victims over the age of 60, officials said.

The division this month received two grants totaling $13,700 from the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging, division Director Kate McGoldrick said.

The money has been earmarked for an aggressive community outreach program aimed at making the elderly aware of services available to crime victims as well as for an increase in staff time devoted to visiting elderly crime victims in their homes, McGoldrick said.

“This is really important with the elderly, because they often lack transportation,” McGoldrick said. “The grants will enable us to send people out after a crime has taken place.”

In the past, victim-services counselors relied on telephone interviews with elderly crime victims because of a lack of funding for home visits, McGoldrick said.

The grants are important, she said, because “a lot of counseling services cannot be done over the phone, especially when we are dealing with traumatic injuries or losses.”

Aside from making the elderly more aware of services available to crime victims, the outreach program will seek to educate senior citizens about the growing number of crimes--including elder abuse, con games and welfare fraud--that target them specifically, McGoldrick said.

The Victim Services Division counseled and assisted 8,385 crime victims in the fiscal year that ended June 30, McGoldrick said.