Elder Abuse and Neglect Program Annual Report FY 2007

              State of Illinois
Pat Quinn, 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
IOCI 0714-09 (3/09 - 1M, 1/08)
State of Illinois
Department on Aging
421 East Capitol Avenue, #100
Springfield, Illinois 62701-1789
Senior HelpLine: 1-800-252-8966
1-888-206-1327 (TTY)
www.state.il.us/aging
FISCAL YEAR 2007
ANNUAL REPORT ElderAbuseandNeglect
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 physical 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 under-stand,
unwilling to consent, threatened, or
physically forced.
Emotional Abuse — verbal assaults,
threats of abuse, harassment, or intimida-tion
so as to compel the older adult to
engage in conduct from which s/he has a
right to abstain or to refrain.
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 awareness of services
to help meet needs, or lack of capacity to
care for the older adult.
Break the Silence
In support of Elder Abuse Awareness month in
Illinois, the Department continued its public
awareness efforts with the “Break the Silence”
campaign. Elder Abuse Provider Agencies and
the Regional Administrative Agencies were
provided with funding and updated toolkits to
assist in outreach efforts.
Self-Neglect Steering Committee
The Elder Abuse and Neglect Act, as
amended in 2006, called for the establishment
of an Elder Self-Neglect Steering Committee.
The committee was mandated by law to make
recommendations to the Department regard-ing
the development of protocols, procedures,
and policies for responding to reports of possi-ble
self-neglect while protecting the older
adult’s rights.
Willful Deprivation — willfully denying
assistance to an older adult who requires
medication, medical care, shelter, food,
therapeutic device, or other physical assis-tance,
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 elderly person
and/or the profit or advantage of another
person.
Illinois Law
The Illinois Department on Aging adminis-ters
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 mis-treatment
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 43 provider
agencies, which are designated by the
Regional Administrative Agencies (RAAs)
and the Department on Aging. All Elder
Abuse Caseworkers are trained and certi-fied
by the Department, which promulgates
the Programs’ policies and procedures and
oversees the monitoring of services through
the RAAs.
Depending on the nature and seriousness
of the allegations, 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 physi-cal
abuse reports, and 7 calendar days for
most financial exploitation and emotional
abuse reports.
The caseworker has 30 days to do a com-prehensive
assessment, both to determine
if the client has been mistreated and to
determine his/her need for services and in-terventions.
If the abuse is substantiated the
caseworker involves the older adult in the
development of a case plan to alleviate the
situation. The caseworker always attempts
to utilize the least restrictive alternatives
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 service, law enforce-ment,
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 himself
/herself. The law also encourages any per-son
to report voluntarily for an older adult,
and provides immunity from liability and
professional disciplinary action for anyone
making such an elder abuse report in good
faith.
Self-Neglect — Effective January 1, 2007,
the Elder Abuse and Neglect Act was
amended to include self-neglect. The amend-ment
established that responding to such
cases would be contingent upon sufficient
funding. In the absence of sufficient funding
for statewide implementation, elder abuse
provider agencies began receiving reports
of self-neglect and referred the reports on to
the appropriate agency(s) for follow-up.
Self-neglect means a condition that is the
result of an eligible adult’s inability, due to
physical or mental impairments, or both, or
a diminished capacity, to perform essential
self-care tasks that substantially threaten his
or her own health, including: providing
essential food, clothing, shelter, and health
care; and obtaining goods and services nec-essary
to maintain physical health, mental
health, emotion well-being, and general
safety.
FY 2007 Accomplishments
B*SAFE (Bankers and Seniors
Against Financial Exploitation)
Training continued to be conducted by elder
abuse caseworkers to bank personnel and
senior groups throughout the state on how
to identify financial exploitation, scams and
other types of abuse. The training included
how to follow simple guidelines for reporting
suspicious circumstances to the Depart-ment’s
Elder Abuse and Neglect Program
and to law enforcement.
20th Annual Elder Rights
Conference
The Department sponsored its 20th annual
Elder Rights Conference on August 1-3,
2006. 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 caseworker. The award recog-nized
an individual who demonstrated
integrity, compassion and commitment to
vulnerable older adults in the community.
Elder
Abuse
and
Neglect
Program
Annual
Report
FY 2007
How many reports of elder abuse were received?
During the period of July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007, there were 9,541 reports of elder abuse
received by the program (includes case transfers). The city of Chicago received the largest number
of reports, 1,712, followed by Suburban Cook County with 1,483. 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 south central area around Effingham, where 826 and 241 reports were received respectively.
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How does a person make
an elder abuse report?
Anyone who suspects that an older adult
is being mistreated should call the
Illinois Department on Aging:
Elder Abuse Hotline: 1-866-800-1409
TTY: 1-888-206-1327
All calls are confidential.