Elder Abuse and Neglect Program Annual Report FY 2005

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Crimes Against Seniors Program
On March 28, 2005, the Governor announced the
creation of the Crimes Against Seniors Program
(CASP); a statewide program dedicated to fighting
financial exploitation and abuses against the elderly.
Four highly qualified investigators were hired to
provide a variety of services to Illinois seniors. The
Illinois State Police received funding for the pro-gram
through the Edward Burne Memorial State and
Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program,
administered by the Illinois Criminal Justice
Authority.
Fiscal Year 2005 Accomplishments
B*SAFE (Bankers and Seniors Against
Financial Exploitation)
Training continued to be conducted by elder
abuse caseworkers to bank personnel and sen-ior
groups throughout the state on how to iden-tify
financial exploitation, scams and other
types of abuse, and to follow simple guidelines
for reporting suspicious circumstances to the
Department’s Elder Abuse and Neglect
Program and to law enforcement.
Rate Study
In Fiscal Year 2005, as a result of the 2004 Rate
Study conducted of the elder abuse provider
agencies, the Department increased the hourly
rate for reimbursement from $29.10 to $40, a
37% increase.
19th Annual Elder Rights Conference
The Department sponsored its 19th Annual
Elder Rights Conference July 19-21, 2005.
Nationally known speakers presented on elder
abuse, Ombudsman and legal issues to over
300 participants. The conference also gave
recognition to an outstanding elder abuse case-worker.
The award recognized an individual
who demonstrated integrity, compassion and
commitment to vulnerable older adults in the
community.
Elder Abuse Awareness Month
In January 2005, Governor Blagojevich signed
a proclamation declaring July 2005, as Elder
Abuse Awareness Month. Department staff
developed a logo “Break the Silence” and
began preparing for a statewide campaign.
Elder Abuse Provider Agencies and the
Regional Administrative Agencies were pro-vided
with funding and a toolkit to assist in
outreach efforts.
State of Illinois
Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor
Illinois Department on Aging
Charles D. Johnson, Director
The Illinois Department on Aging does not discriminate in
admission to programs or treatment of employment in
compliance with appropriate State and Federal Statutes. If
you feel you have been discriminated against, call the Senior
HelpLine at, 1-800-252-8966,
1-888-206-1327 (TTY)
Printed by Authority of
the State of Illinois
IL-402-1080 (Rev. 1/07, 4M)
IISG07-565
421 East Capitol Avenue, #100
Springfield, Illinois 62701-1789
Illinois Department on Aging
Elder Abuse Hotline
1-866-800-1409
1-888-206-1327 (TTY)
Fiscal Year 2005 Annual Report
How Many Reports of Elder Abuse Were
Received? During the period of July 1, 2004,
through June 30, 2005, there were 8,584
(includes case transfers) reports of elder abuse
received by the program. The city of Chicago
received the largest number of reports, 1,448,
followed by Suburban Cook County with 1,292.
The number of reports received per 1,000 older
adults is highest for elder abuse reports in the
southern tip of Illinois around Carbondale and
the southeastern area around Mt. Carmel, where
578 and 228 reports were received respectively.
What is Elder Abuse? Elder abuse refers to the
following types of mistreatment of any Illinois
resident 60 years of age or older who lives in the
community and is abused by another person.
Physical Abuse: causing the infliction of physi-cal
pain or injury to an older adult.
Sexual Abuse: touching, fondling or any other
sexual activity with an older adult when the
older adult is unable to understand, unwilling to
consent, threatened or physically forced.
Emotional Abuse: verbal assaults, threats of
abuse, harassment or intimidation to compel the
older adult to engage in conduct from which he
or she has a right to abstain or to refrain from
conduct in which the older adult has a right to
engage.
Confinement: restraining or isolating an older
adult for other than medical reasons.
Passive Neglect: the failure by a caregiver to
provide an older adult with the necessities of life
including, but not limited to, food, clothing,
shelter or medical care, because of failure to
understand the older adult’s needs, lack of aware-ness
of services to help meet need, or lack of capac-ity
to care for the older adult.
Willful Deprivation: willfully denying assistance
to an older adult who requires medication, medical
care, shelter, food, therapeutic device or other phys-ical
assistance, thereby exposing that person to the
risk of harm.
Financial Exploitation: the misuse or withholding
of an older adult’s resources to the disadvantage of
the older adult and/or the profit or advantage of
another person.
Illinois Law
The Illinois Department on Aging administers the
statewide Elder Abuse and Neglect Program
(EANP), under the authority of the Elder Abuse and
Neglect Act (320ILCS 20/1 et seq.) to respond to
reports of alleged mistreatment of any Illinois
citizen 60 years of age or older who lives in the
community.
The Elder Abuse and Neglect Program is locally
coordinated through 44 provider agencies that are
designated by the Regional Administrative Agencies
(RAAs) and the Department on Aging. All Elder
Abuse Caseworkers are trained and certified by the
Department, which promulgates the programs’ poli-cies
and procedures and oversees the monitoring of
services through the RAAs.
Depending on the nature and seriousness of the alle-gations,
a trained caseworker will make a face-to-face
contact with the victim within the following
time frames: 24 hours for life threatening situations,
72 hours for most neglect and non-life threatening
physical abuse reports and seven calendar days for
most financial exploitation and emotional abuse
reports.
The caseworker has 30 days to do a comprehen-sive
assessment both to determine if the client
has been mistreated and to determine their need
for services and interventions. If the abuse is
substantiated, the caseworker involves the older
adult in the development of a case plan to alle-viate
the situation. The caseworker always
attempts to utilize the least restrictive alterna-tives
that will allow the older adult to remain
independent to the degree possible.
Limited Mandatory Reporting: applies to
persons delivering professional services to older
adults in the following fields: social services,
adult day care, law enforcement, education,
medicine, state service to seniors and social
work. The requirements for limited mandatory
reporting apply when the reporter believes that
the older adult is not capable of reporting the
abuse themselves. The law also encourages any
person to report voluntarily for an older adult
and provides immunity from liability and pro-fessional
disciplinary action for anyone mak-ing
such an elder abuse report in good faith.
How Does a Person Report Elder Abuse?
Anyone who suspects that an older adult is
being mistreated by another should call one of
the following numbers:
Illinois Department on Aging
Elder Abuse Hotline
1-866-800-1409,
1-888-206-1327 (TTY)
ALL CALLS ARE CONFIDENTIAL
Elder
Abuse
and Neglect Program
Annual Report
FY 2005