TEAM Institute

Texas Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Institute (TEAM)

The Texas Elder Abuse and Mistreatment (TEAM) Collaboratory (formerly Institute) was formed in 1995 through a groundbreaking collaboration between the Baylor College of Medicine’s geriatrics program and Texas Adult Protective Services (APS). Pioneered by the late Dr. Carmel B. Dyer, TEAM represents the first formal academic-medicine and APS collaboration in the country. At the time, elder mistreatment, including abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, and self-neglect, was largely addressed as a social issue, with minimal medical team involvement. TEAM changed that by integrating medical expertise into APS casework, overcoming cultural and bureaucratic barriers to create a model for multidisciplinary cooperation.

TEAM consists of a wide range of disciplines at the intersection of healthcare and community including gerontology, geriatric medicine, legal and law enforcement, social work, nursing, psychology, epidemiology, behavioral sciences, and more.

Evolution & Impact

  • Early Years: TEAM began by making house calls with APS caseworkers, offering medical assessments, primarily focused on determining older adults decision-making capacity, to support APS investigations and plans of care.
  • Expansion: With support from APS contracts, federal and private grants and national recognition, TEAM grew into four specialized divisions:
    1. Forensic Evaluation – Local In-home decision-making capacity evaluations leveraged video-conferencing technology, in 2015, to expand APS and client’s access to these assessments across all 254 Texas counties
    2. Education & Outreach – Local, statewide, and national training for medical, nursing and social work students and law enforcement, plus public awareness programs.
    3. Research & Program Evaluation – Groundbreaking studies on elder self-neglect, risk factors, and interventions that have led to statewide forensic accounting and social connection programs serving APS clients
    4. Senior Justice – Initiatives such as elder abuse fatality review teams, financial abuse specialist teams, and forensic centers.

Key Achievements

  • Has served thousands of mistreated and neglected older adults across Texas.
  • Launched the nation’s first statewide decision-making capacity assessment program for APS clients in the country.
  • Secured major funding from agencies like the NIH, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Administration on Community Living.
  • Trained generations of health professionals in elder mistreatment and self-neglect detection and intervention.
  • Improved interagency coordination, leading to better case resolutions, reduced service duplication, and stronger prosecutions.

Why It Matters

TEAM’s success demonstrates that medical–social service partnerships can dramatically improve protection for older adults and can advance research. The model’s emphasis on mutual respect, shared expertise, and multidisciplinary problem-solving has influenced national elder justice strategies and inspired similar collaborations nationwide. TEAM’s, discovery to delivery, approach continues to pave the way for research and program innovation in the pursuit to prevent elder mistreatment and self-neglect, but also to support building resilience among survivors.

TEAM Collaboratory Director: Jason Burnett, PhD

Questions about TEAM, reach out to Dr. Burnett at [email protected] or 713-500-3845.