Illinois Dept. of Aging Fatality Review Team

Both the State and community maintain a commitment to preventing abuse, neglect and exploitation of at-risk adults. This includes a charge to bring perpetrators of crimes against at-risk adults and prevent untimely deaths in the community.

When an at-risk adult dies, the response to the death by the community, law enforcement, and the State must include an accurate and complete determination of the cause of death, and the development and implementation of measures to prevent future deaths from similar causes.

To this end, Fatality Review Teams have been established in each of the Department’s planning and service areas.

The oversight body for these teams is the Fatality Review Team Advisory Council, which meets a minimum of four times a year and is charged with the following:

• Serves as the voice of Fatality Review Teams (FRT) in Illinois;
• Oversees the FRTs to ensure that work is coordinated and in compliance with State statutes and operation protocols;
• Ensures that data, results, findings and recommendations of the FRTs are used in a timely manner to make any necessary changes to the policies, procedures, and State statutes in order to protect at-risk adults;
• Collaborates with IDoA in order to develop any legislation needed to prevent unnecessary deaths of at-risk adults;
• Ensures FRTs use standardized processes in order to convey data, findings, and recommendations;
• Serves as a link with FRTs throughout the country and to participate in national review team activities;
• Provides FRTs with the most current information and practices concerning at-risk adult death review and related topics;
• Performs any other functions necessary to enhance the capability of the FRTs to reduce and prevent at-risk adult fatalities;
• Upon request of the IDoA Director, reviews the death of an at-risk adult that occurs in a planning and service area where an FRT has not yet been established.

Source:
Fatality Review Team