Elder abuse legislation signed into law by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WDEF) – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has signed legislation providing extra protections for Tennessee’s vulnerable adult population.

State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) sponsored the legislation in the General Assembly.

Crimes related to the abuse, neglect and exploitation of Tennessee’s vulnerable adults continue to increase but are extremely under-reported because often these crimes are committed by loved ones or trusted caregivers.

Bill HB1824/SB1848 requires background checks for individuals who work directly with seniors and adults with disabilities, including employees of home care organizations. Prior to passage of this bill, background check requirements among industries dealing with vulnerable adults was inconsistent. This legislation brings consistency and clarity to these requirements.

The bill also requires the Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability (TCAD) to establish a working group to focus on the development and implementation of a field guide that will assist state law enforcement in recognizing signs of abuse, as well as provide them with a better understanding of how to investigate and report the possibility of abuse.

The newly passed legislation followed directly from the efforts of the Elder Abuse Taskforce, a group appointed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2014 to review Tennessee elder abuse laws and make recommendations for improvement. The Taskforce finished their review in the fall of 2015 and provided the General Assembly and the Governor with recommendations in the form of a formal report.

Full Article & Source:
Elder abuse legislation signed into law by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam

Uscrupulous Guardians Pose Threat To Older Americans

Dorothy Luck was enjoying her golden years until an unexpected legal dispute threatened her $1 million investment portfolio.

A distant relative brought guardianship proceedings against the 87-year-old widow and control of her money was eventually wrested. Luck started investing in the 1980s with $10,000, but now receives monthly disbursements from the bank that took control of her portfolio with a court order.

“I had a million dollars cash invested with Edward Jones that vanished after a vice president of trust from Frost Bank was appointed ad litem by a county judge,” Luck said in an interview. "It boils down to greed, selfishness and envy."

Luck is among the 21 percent of older adults who are concerned about protecting themselves from financial scams and the 43 percent of professionals who share this concern, according to the 2015 United States of Aging Survey conducted by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a), National Council on Aging (NCOA) and United Healthcare.

“Professionals in the field who see seniors struggling the most are reporting that the golden years are not so golden for far too many individuals,” said Ramsey Alwin, vice president of economic security with the NCOA, based in Washington, D.C. “It’s an economic justice and human rights issue.”

Part of the problem is the denial that exists around what getting older means.

“People want to age on their own terms, but it’s inevitable that they will become more vulnerable,” Alwin told Financial Advisor magazine. “There can be long good-byes that are painful due to chronic conditions rather than terminal issues.”

Nationwide, financial advisors are doing their best to assist clients who may be unaware what awaits them as they retire.

When Larry Rosenthal comes across an aging client who may be deteriorating mentally or physically but is resistant to advanced planning, he tries to enlist the help of their adult children, but not without contacting compliance and requesting the client’s permission.

“It has to do with the client’s situation and not so much with age,” Rosenthal said. “Some clients don’t want their kids to know about their money until after death. In that case, I make sure everything is as tax efficient as possible and that beneficiary documents are lined up in the way they want.”

Once adult children are on board, Rosenthal often recommends linking together the aging client’s bank account through e-money advisor.

“This way both the client’s adult children and I can review the spending of the aging client who may be vulnerable because their physical or mental health is in decline,” said Rosenthal, whose financial advisory practice is in Virginia.

With some 5.3 million people having Alzheimer’s illness in the U.S., according to the Alzheimer’s Association, it’s no wonder that among credit union managers, primary care physicians, aging professionals and pharmacists surveyed, only 10 percent feel older Americans are very prepared to age compared with 42 percent of seniors.

“We have been looking at the retirement crisis and noting that many professionals see first hand that seniors don’t have enough private savings or that their home equity took a hit during the recession and it hasn’t rebounded,” Alwin said.

But finding a job isn’t as simple as it sounds for aging Americans who want to bridge the gap of insufficient income.

Full Article & Source:
Uscrupulous Guardians Pose Threat To Older Americans

Protect seniors from abuse

Senate should OK House bill to curb those who prey on elderly

A law to better protect seniors from neglect, abuse and exploitation deserves to be passed by the Ohio Senate.

Stories of senior mistreatment, as vividly reported in The Dispatch’s March 15-16 “Elder Abuse” series, are stomach-churning. People have been scammed of their life’s savings after years of living frugally. Others have been horribly neglected.

But Ohio’s current law is outdated and insufficient. House Bill 24 is a strong effort to address this growing problem.

The bill updates the state’s legal definitions of elder abuse to include financial harm, neglect and exploitation. This isn’t just a matter of compassion; scammers cost taxpayers, because elderly victims often must turn to public assistance to survive.

The bill would boost training for protective-services case workers. And it would have more people watching out for the elderly, by expanding the state’s current list of mandatory reporters. H.B. 24 would expand those required to report suspicions — such as clergy, attorneys and nursing-home employees — to include firefighters, accountants, notaries public, real-estate brokers, bank employees and pharmacists, among others.

“If it can be caught early, people can be protected from empty bank accounts,” Beth Kowalczyk, chief policy officer for the Ohio Association of Area Agencies on Aging, told legislators. “Bank employees and financial planners are frequently in a position to see what may be going on in an older adult’s home.”

Charlie Holderman, the retired supervisor of Adult Protective Services for Montgomery County, recalled working a case where a bank had caught a couple draining the account of a 94-year-old man whose worth totaled $5 million.

A bank had taken the initiative to alert Holderman’s agency that the husband of the couple, a prominent attorney, and his wife were writing themselves checks every day for $2,000 or more. Holderman’s agency went to court to stop the exploitation, but the man had lost $700,000.

“Although this was an extreme case,” Holderman told a House committee, “there are many instances of exploitation that are happening all over the state.”

How many is anyone’s guess. The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates that 1 in 10 elderly Americans is abused or neglected each year, often by trusted family members or caregivers.

Kathleen Quinn, executive director of the National Adult Protective Services Association, called elder abuse “rampant, largely invisible, expensive and lethal.” Immediate action is needed, she told The Dispatch.

One of H.B. 24’s key provisions would require the state to create and manage a registry to identify patterns of elder abuse.

“For the first time,” said Rep. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea, “Ohio will be able to accurately monitor and track the abuse of our senior citizens.”

Sharing this information with law enforcement would allow for the tracking of perpetrators and victims across county lines. And by getting a handle on the size of this problem, advocates for the elderly can build a better case to increase state funding.

Some Ohio counties currently are without a single full-time adult-protective-services worker.
The Senate has twice before failed to pass elder-abuse laws sent by the House. Just who is for draining granny of her life savings? Or leaving grandpa hungry?

No senior citizen should have to endure the indignity of theft and mistreatment. The Senate should pass this bill.

Full Article & Source:
Protect seniors from abuse

Bill to protect elderly from theft, abuse passes House

A measure aimed at limiting people’s ability to steal from or abuse vulnerable adults cleared the state House Monday.

House Bill 1316 would require people to be arrested without a warrant if they violate temporary protection orders banning them from contact with vulnerable adults, such as the elderly or disabled.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said the change would prove particularly helpful when someone is suspected of gaining access to an infirm or elderly person’s bank account.

Right now, a victim or a victim’s family member can apply for a temporary protection order against someone they suspect of taking advantage of a vulnerable adult.

But it can take up to a few weeks for a court to hold a hearing determining whether a permanent protection order is warranted in such cases, Lindquist said. And during that waiting period, police are not able to arrest someone for violating the temporary court order unless they go to court and get a warrant – a process that also takes time, he said.

“We want to be able to move quickly before the bank account is bled dry,” Lindquist said.

Police are already able to arrest people without a warrant for violating a temporary protection order in domestic abuse cases. Lindquist said he thinks the same rules should apply to temporary orders protecting vulnerable adults.

The legislation, sponsored by Republican Rep. Melanie Stambaugh of Puyallup, passed the House 97-0 Monday.

“There is a serious oversight in current law, where those who are susceptible to abuse are not protected,” Stambaugh said in a statement. “This bill is a critical step in preventing abuse of the elderly, and I was happy to see it pass the House unanimously.”

Lindquist said an increasing number of elder abuse cases in Pierce County now involve financial harm rather than physical harm.

Of the 70 elder abuse cases Lindquist’s office prosecuted in 2014, more than half involved financial fraud, he said.

ead more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/03/02/3666139_bill-to-protect-elderly-from-theft.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Full Article & Source:
Bill to protect elderly from theft, abuse passes House

Fingerprint-Supported Web Portal Helps Kentucky Protect Vulnerable Citizens

The portal pulls state and federal law enforcement data on health-care job-seekers, adding another layer of protection that identifies prospective workers hiding illegal or abusive acts committed in other states. 

Kentucky is seeking to implement more stringent criminal records searches for those wanting to care for some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens. Though still in the embryonic stage, the Kentucky Applicant Registry and Employment Screening program, or KARES, is another layer of protection aimed at weeding out prospective care workers hiding illegal or abusive deeds committed in other states.

The new high-tech background check program is a pre-hiring fingerprint-supported state and FBI Web portal available to long-term care facilities and employers. The portal was created to support the Kentucky National Background Check Program, a state effort intended to help reduce the potential for abuse — including financial exploitation — of elderly and vulnerable adults.

In August 2013, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) Office of Inspector General launched a website for KARES, meant to supplement screening that providers currently must perform, said Al Ervin, business analyst for the office of administrative technology at CHFS.

A pilot venture kicked off last May, with 24 long-term care facilities across the state sending applicants to 35 fingerprint collection sites. Kentucky is one of 25 states to receive a $4 million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to fund the program.

“Our goal with the pilot was to keep it to a limited number of participants in a controlled environment,” Ervin said.

The LiveScan electronic fingerprint units, provided by Virginia-based biometic and identity solution company MorphoTrak, are kept at three dozen employment training centers. The fingerprint scanning process takes about 30 minutes, after which applicant data is transmitted to local police and FBI offices. Results come back within 24 to 72 hours.

Employers eligible for the service include assisted living communities, home health agencies, hospices and nursing facilities. Under the program, backed by the Kentucky State Police among others, candidates seeking long-term care employment will no longer be able to hide criminal activity committed in other states, noted CHFS Inspector General Maryellen Mynear.

Workers subject to a background check under KARES have one-on-one contact with patients, said Mynear. This includes volunteers providing direct services similar to that of a paid worker.

During the program’s pilot phase, KARES proved it worked. The system made several ineligible rulings on individuals based on past criminal history. Among the disqualifying offenses are felonies related to sexual or violent crimes, as well as criminal abuse that involves a child or adult. Activity involving theft and embezzlement will also keep wannabe workers out of long-term care facilities.

“We’re trying to prevent any kind of abuse, exploitation or neglect of the elderly,” Mynear said.

“There are many ways our patients can be taken advantage of.”

Before KARES, state law required caregivers to use only name-based background checks conducted by state police or the Administrative Office of the Courts. A semblance of change in this procedure came in 2011 with the reinvigoration of a state-sponsored elder abuse prevention task force, initially created to strengthen support of a care facility system wracked by stories of neglect and ill treatment of patients. In 2007, the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services received 45,048 reports of adult abuse, 9,660 of which were for persons ages 60 and older, according to CHFS.

Discussions about adding a comprehensive fingerprint-based vetting system began in 2011 when the state Office of Inspector General (OIG) applied for grant funding. It took several years of development to integrate KARES into state employment centers. Ervin reports that the technology has been well received by participants since the pilot launched in spring 2014.

“It’s a simple, user-friendly platform to work with,” he said. “There have been no problems using the system or with the hiring of applicants.”

Challenges Ahead
That’s not to say there aren’t issues to smooth out before a statewide rollout of the KARES program takes place. For example, three dozen fingerprinting locations are not nearly enough for the state’s 120 counties, according to officials. Filling those gaps will likely mean buying more equipment or sharing resources across agencies. In addition, the OIG will have to address accessibility issues for scanning stations located in counties with geographical impediments like mountains that make them harder to reach.

Meanwhile, Kentucky lawmakers are considering a bill that would make the multi-state background check a mandatory program for long-term care settings. Proceedings on the bill, which the OIG will present to the Kentucky General Assembly this year, are expected to delay wider implementation of KARES until at least mid-2015, Ervin said.

Full Article & Source:
Fingerprint-Supported Web Portal Helps Kentucky Protect Vulnerable Citizens