New Illinois law protecting elderly from abuse doesn’t go far enough

The law foolishly requires most elderly people to give permission for their family members to be questioned

By Letters to the Editor

The Illinois State Capitol

Seth Perlman / Associated Press

A new law to address elder abuse has reached Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk. For the first time, as required by House Bill 3065, staffers for the state’s Adult Protective Services will be required to talk to an elderly person’s entire immediate family when trying to confirm abuse complaints.

Yet the new law doesn’t go far enough. Opposed by the entire Illinois elder bureaucracy in its original form, the bill in its final form requires most elders to give permission for their family members to be questioned.

Confirming obvious physical abuse or neglect, under these conditions, may still be no problem for a visiting caseworker. But when long-term isolation and emotional abuse — not physical abuse — make up the core of the abuse complaint, it seems improbable that a cowed and isolated elder will suddenly cooperate with a visiting stranger from Adult Protective Services. 

The same goes for the APS procedural requirement that an elder’s isolation or confinement be verbally confirmed by the abused elder.

What do we still not get about elder abuse — that traumatic exploitation of an entire family through the hostage-taking of its dying parent? 

Why can’t APS confirm the abuse it’s supposed to combat without the cooperation of isolated victims under abusive control at their very end of life? 

APS must finally be allowed to harness the love and truth of good-actor family members against the predators in their midst.

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New Illinois law protecting elderly from abuse doesn’t go far enough