Elder Abuse and Neglect Program Annual Report FY 2008

              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 0990-09 (3/09 - 4M)
FISCAL YEAR 2008
ANNUAL REPORT ElderAbuseandNeglect
What is elder abuse?
Elder abuse refers to the following types of mis-treatment
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 understand, unwilling to
consent, threatened, or physically forced.
Emotional Abuse — verbal assaults, threats of
abuse, harassment, or intimidation 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 serv-ices
to help meet needs, or lack of capacity to care
for the older adult.
Willful Deprivation — willfully denying assis-tance
to an older adult who requires medication,
medical care, shelter, food, therapeutic device, or
other physical assistance, thereby exposing that
person to the risk of harm.
Financial Exploitation — the misuse or
withholding of an older adult’s resources to their
disadvantage and/or the profit or advantage of
another person.
Illinois Law
The Illinois Department on Aging (IDoA) 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 43 provider agencies, which
are designated by the Regional Administrative
Agencies (RAAs) and IDoA. All Elder Abuse Case-workers
are trained and certified by IDoA, which
promulgates the program’s 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
physical abuse reports, and 7 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 his/her need for
services and interventions. If the abuse is substan-tiated
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. This applies
to persons delivering professional services to older
adults in the following fields: social services, adult
day service, 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 himself /herself.
The law also encourages any person to report volun-tarily
for an older adult, and provides immunity from
liability and professional disciplinary action for any-one
making such an elder abuse report in good faith.
Self-Neglect. Effective January 1, 2007, the
Elder Abuse and Neglect Act was amended to in-clude
self-neglect. The amendment 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 to the
appropriate agency(ies) 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 necessary to
maintain physical health, mental health, emotional
well-being, and general safety.
24 Hour Response. In the case of a report of
alleged or suspected abuse or neglect that places
an eligible adult at risk of injury or death, a provider
agency shall be available to respond 24 hours per
day, seven days per week. The amendment was
signed into law August 13, 2007, and will become ef-fective
when the rules and procedures are finalized.
Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team.
Effective June 1, 2008, the Elder Abuse and Neglect
Act was amended to include provisions, by giving
IDoA, or any other State or county agency with IDoA
approval, the right to establish regional interagency
elder abuse fatality review teams. The purpose of
an Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team is to review
suspicious deaths of persons aged 60 years of age
or older who reside in a domestic living situation.
FY 2008 Accomplishments
B*SAFE (Bankers and Seniors Against
Financial Exploitation). Fifty-three trainings
were conducted by elder abuse caseworkers to
bank personnel and elder adult groups throughout
the state on how to identify financial exploitation,
scams and other types of abuse. The training in-cluded
how to follow simple guidelines for reporting
suspicious circumstances to the IDoA Elder Abuse
and Neglect Program and to law enforcement.
21st Annual Elder Rights Conference.
On July 17-19, 2007, IDoA sponsored its 21st
annual conference. Nationally known speakers
presented on elder abuse, long-term care ombuds-men,
and legal issues to over 300 participants.
The conference also gave recognition to an out-standing
elder abuse caseworker, recognizing an
individual who demonstrates integrity, compassion
and commitment to vulnerable older adults in the
community.
Break the Silence Campaign. In support of
Elder Abuse Awareness Month in Illinois, IDoA con-tinued
its public awareness efforts with the “Break
the Silence” campaign. To assist in outreach efforts,
IDoA provided Elder Abuse Provider Agencies and
RAAs funding and updated toolkits.
How many reports of elder abuse were received?
During the period of July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, there were 10,583 reports of elder abuse received by the
program (includes case transfers). The city of Chicago received the largest number of reports, 2,088, followed by
Suburban Cook County with 1,627. The number of reports received per 1,000 older adults is highest for elder abuse
reports in the southern part of Illinois around Carbondale and the southeastern area around Mt. Carmel, where 828
and 242 reports were received respectively.
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State of Illinois
Department on Aging
421 East Capitol Avenue, #100
Springfield, Illinois 62701-1789
Senior HelpLine: 1-800-252-8966
www.state.il.us/aging
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.
Elder Abuse Fatality Review (EAFR)
Teams Manual. As a result of the amendment
to establish an EAFR Team, the EANP, along with
professionals who served on the Kane County
Elder Fatality Review Team, developed a how-to
manual to guide Elder Abuse Provider Agencies on
forming an EAFR Team.
Protocol for Law Enforcement. In partner-ship
with the Illinois Family Violence Coordinating
Council, IDoA convened a statewide Responding to
Elder Abuse Committee. The purpose of the com-mittee
was to identify and develop resources to
assist the courts, criminal justice systems, and
communities in responding to the needs of abused
seniors. As a result of the partnership, a protocol
was developed to assist law enforcement in respond-ing
to victims of abuse, neglect and exploitation.
State of Illinois
Pat Quinn, Governor
Illinois Department on Aging
Charles D. Johnson, Director
Elder Abuse
and Neglect
Program
Annual Report
FY 2008