PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lori Sitler
Phone: (302) 577-8314
Pager: (302) 247-1132
Date: June 14, 2004
BRADY TO SPEAK AT NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH LAW CONFERENCE
(Wilmington, DE): On Tuesday, June 15th, Attorney General M. Jane Brady will participate as a panelist at a conference entitled, “The Public’s Health and the Law in the 21st Century: Third Annual Conference on Public Health Law,” in Atlanta, Georgia. This national conference, which runs from June 14-16, is convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Law Program, the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, the Public Health Law Association and twenty other organizations.
This conference is designed to help participants, “recognize the critical role law plays in protecting the health of the public and to form partnerships to shape and use legal tools for improved public health.” Participants will be comprised of public health practitioners, elected officials, attorneys, law enforcement officials, judges, researchers and educators.
Attorney General Brady will be a panelist at two conference sessions: “Turning Point Model State Public Health Law,” and “Elder Abuse and the Law: New Science, New Tools.”
Brady serves as the representative of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) to the Turning Point Public Health Statute Modernization National Collaborative. The collaborative is a partnership comprised of representatives from five states, nine national organizations and government agencies, and experts in specialty areas of public health. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Collaborative’s mission is to transform and strengthen the legal framework for the public health system by developing a model state public health law. She attended the forum on the Model State Public Health Act held in Alaska in March. She will share the work product from the March conference with the session attendees in Atlanta. She sponsored the resolution of NAAG to encourage states to review and modernize their public health laws and has met with Delaware public health officials to discuss the matter as well.
Brady, who has spoken internationally regarding her initiatives to help senior citizen victims was pleased elder abuse is being addressed as a public health concern. “Abuse and financial exploitation of seniors is one of the most hidden crimes occurring in our society today. The interest of the public health community in this issue will help us promote better awareness, detection and response regarding these crimes.”
During her tenure as Attorney General, Brady has made senior citizen victims a priority area for both policy and service delivery. She created the Attorney General’s Task Force on Senior Victims, a multi-disciplinary group which worked to examine laws, policies, service coordination and training needs of those who work with elder victims. She also instituted the Elder Abuse and Exploitation Project to address the gap in service which existed for seniors living in the community who are victims of abuse or financial crimes. The Volunteer Senior Victim Advocate Program was created by Brady to provide trained, peer advocates for seniors who are victims of crime. She will be discussing these projects at the “Elder Abuse and the Law” session.
More information is available regarding these projects on the Attorney General’s website, attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/
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