Combating abuse of vulnerable adults[Lutter contre les maltraitances envers les adultes en situation de vulnérabilité]

hese fact sheets are designed to aid reflection and action in structuring cooperation in the context of dealing with situations of abuse towards vulnerable adults. Although it involves a multitude of local actors with varied roles and missions (town halls, departmental social services, regional health agencies, law enforcement, public prosecutors, associations, etc.), the fight against abuse was not truly coordinated by a national public policy until 2024. The TACT (Traitement des Alertes de maltraitance en Coopération sur les Territoires) action research project consisted of collecting and comparing the practices tested and promoted by actors in the field encountered in several territories. It appears that the handling of reports of abuse against vulnerable adults poses two main challenges: the coordination of the various actors who receive reports of abuse; and the cooperation of a group of actors contributing to local policy and the monitoring of each situation. These two issues are often unclear in the field, since the same public authorities and actors are involved in both missions, sometimes in redundant and poorly identified areas. This is all the more true given that, prior to the so-called ‘Ageing Well' law of April 2024, the need for coordination was strongly emphasised in political discourse in response to strong social demand, without any single institution or body being identified as having authority in this area. The recent inclusion in the law of units for collecting and processing reports aims to address the issue of coordination, which has already been the subject of measures that have not been implemented in a satisfactory and sustainable manner. Based on the findings of the TACT action research on the current functioning of the processing of reports of abuse of vulnerable adults, here are nine reference sheets to facilitate the implementation of the measures of the so-called ‘Ageing Well' law of 8 April 2024. We refer to the collegial bodies whose mission is to organise the operational work between all the actors involved in monitoring situations of abuse as ‘TACT commissions'. TACT commissions are not required by law and do not have to be created from scratch: they are the result of a review of the collegial bodies that local actors have already set up and tested. The composition, scope of mission, operational functioning and name of these commissions are not predefined. These reference sheets have been designed to support this capitalisation and promotion of cooperation practices by guiding stakeholders' questions.