ANALYSIS OF HOUSE BILL 1620

                         Protecting vulnerable adults.

Health Care Committee                          February 8, 1999

Washington State House of Representatives

SPONSORS:  Representatives Conway and Parlette.

BACKGROUND:  Elder abuse is widespread in the United States.  It is a national problem with a frequency and rate approximate to that of child abuse.  Based on two national studies on elder abuse, 48 percent of the incidents investigated are substantiated.  However, only one in five incidents of abuse or neglect are ever reported and substantiated by Adult Protective Services.  In general, there appears to be a higher rate of female abuse victims.  The National Elder Abuse Incident Study found that almost 90 percent of the elder abuse and neglect incidents are with a known perpetrator, who most often is a family member.  Two-thirds of the perpetrators are adult children or spouses.  Rates of reported abuse to the state=s Adult Protective Services Program have increased approximately 60 percent in the last three years.

Under current law vulnerable adults include:

!Adults over the age of 60 who lack the functional, mental, physical ability to care for himself or herself;

!Adult clients of the Division of Developmental Disabilities;

!Dependent adults with a legal guardian;

!Adults receiving in-home care services; and

!Adults living in a nursing home, adult family home, boarding home when perpetrator is not an employee, operator, or volunteer of the facility.

Currently, three separate statutes direct the reporting requirements of abandonment, abuse, exploitation, and neglect of vulnerable adults, investigating those elements, and protecting vulnerable adults from further abuse.  The three statutes contain overlapping client populations, separate, and different sets of definitions, different lists of professionals required to report incidents of abuse, different criteria for reporting suspected criminal activity to law enforcement, different requirements for investigating incidents, and different provisions for providing protective services.

SUMMARY:  Three statutes that require the reporting and investigation of incidents of abuse are consolidated.  One statutory reference is created to be applicable for law enforcement, prosecutors, mandated reporters, medical professionals, licensing authorities, other agencies that are involved in services provision for vulnerable adults, and the DSHS social workers and investigators of abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect.

The definition of abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect are made uniform for all vulnerable adults.  The three overlapping lists of those responsible for reporting suspected case of abuse and neglect is combined into one list and the reporters are given the same reporting requirements for vulnerable adults.  The items that must be reported are specified.  Immunity and confidentiality is provided for the reporter. Whistleblower, protection order, injunction, and civil penalty provisions are amended to correspond with changes in definitions.  New language is added to guide the DSHS in the disclosure of public records, responding to reports, reporting to law enforcement when a crime is suspected, and for reporting to the appropriate licensing authority.  The department is given the authority to expand its ability to interview other individuals like neighbors or landlords, not just family  members.  The department is given the responsibility for developing separate rules relating to the investigation of vulnerable adults.  The department must provide a report on the feasibility of developing a registry of perpetrators of abuse.