A group of prosecutors, medical experts, elder care providers and others took their first step Friday to officially investigating senior citizen abuse deaths with the backing of a new state law.
The State Attorney’s Office kicked off the first meeting of the Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team at the Duval County Courthouse, many members meeting via video conference. The members named Duval County Judge Gary Flower and ElderSource CEO Linda Levin as co-chairs.
Approved by the Legislature and signed into law in June, the legislation calls for the state attorney of each circuit to initiate an elder abuse fatality review team in his or her judicial circuit. Closed State Attorney's Office cases of elder fatalities caused by abuse or neglect will be provided to the team so it can make policy recommendations to help prevent future similar cases.
"It can be a walk-in that you looked at and said there's not enough evidence here," Flower said. "The team will look at those files and mine it for information to allow us to review, without blaming and shaming. ... We can look at the closed files and see, as a community, how we can do better and find gaps in services."
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, was the bill sponsor. She said she is "extremely excited" that it is finally law and that her district has initiated a team. It was "four years in the making," she said.
"Isn't that ridiculous?" Gibson said. "We had to fight against the nursing homes, then the trial lawyers and everyone else thinking we were going to come into their facilities and inspect them and start charging them with criminal actions. But it's not about that. It's about our seniors."
The National Council on Aging says about 1-in-10 Americans aged 60-plus has experienced some form of elder abuse, as high as 5 million abused victims each year. A recent USA TODAY Network - Florida investigation focused on 54 nursing home deaths from 2013 through 2017 where state inspectors cited neglect and mistreatment as factors. It found Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration rarely took action and often didn’t investigate the deaths.
ElderSource, the Women's Center and other agencies worked with Gibson to lobby for the bill's passage.
"These reviews will seek to identify potential problems in the delivery of services to our elderly that may have contributed to the death," State Attorney Melissa Nelson said. "This work could result in policy and legal recommendations to improve the overall system of care."
The judge agreed, saying the team will not be an "investigative arm" of the State Attorney's Office but rather make recommendations.
The teams must submit information on elder abuse-related fatalities to Florida's Department of Elder Affairs by . Each Nov. 1 the teams must summarize their findings and recommendations of the review to the governor, head of the state House and Senate and the Department of Children and Families.
The approved bill allows
for creation of a fatality review team in each of Florida's 20 judicial
circuits, Gibson said. The teams will be made up of volunteer members
from law enforcement, medical examiner’s offices, agencies on aging, the
state’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman program and the Florida Agency for
Health Care Administration, among others.
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