Adult Abuse Providers’ Shortcomings Hit the News

Delaware: In June, a legislative nursing home reform panel headed by Sen. Robert L. Marshall (D-Wilmington West) issued a 16-page report that was highly critical of the Division of Long-Term Care Residents Protection and the state Medicaid Office for failing to “enforce state and federal laws protecting nursing home residents, and to adequately account for the $140 million provided annually by state and federal governments for nursing home facilities.” In particular, the report charges that Carol Ellis, director of the Division of Long-Term Care Residents Protection “consciously decided not to enforce” staffing requirements mandated by “Eagle’s Law,” a measure sponsored by Senator Marshall, whose father died in a nursing home. Both the Delaware Health Care Facilities Association and Ms. Ellis’s boss, Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services Vincent P. Meconi, said the charges were unfounded.

Florida: Florida’s APS system came under increasing scrutiny beginning in September, when a series of at least seven Florida Today articles criticized the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Elder Affairs. The headlines alone describe some of the allegations: “State shies away from elder abuse allegations: Overburdened agencies too often quick to dismiss difficult cases, casting seniors from safety net,” “Authorities seldom investigate deaths among the elderly,” “Lawmakers lean on police to investigate elder abuse,” and “Several elder cases shelved, review says.”

Kentucky: Six abuse workers were disciplined as the result of a March murder-suicide of a mother and her mentally disabled adult daughter. A supervisor was fired for “failing to make appropriate decisions regarding a client and her family.” Another worker was demoted and had her salary cut, another was transferred and reduced in title, two received written reprimands, and one was suspended for two days without pay. Although the family had been investigated numerous times and had had children removed due to suicidal behavior, substance abuse, physical abuse, and neglect, at one point a social worker had determined that a child who was in her early teens at the time would be able to look after both the mother, who had severe complications from a surgery, and the mentally disabled older sister; additional services were not needed. That younger child had been removed by CPS two months before the mother overdosed the older daughter and herself.

Texas: A September 27, 2003 article in the Houston Chronicle savaged Texas’s statewide abuse hotline, charging, “Nearly 190,000 calls to the 24-hour abuse hot line went unanswered last year because frustrated callers hang up after being left on hold.” The reporter said she had been left on hold for one hour and 43 minutes during a 4 p.m. weekday call. Although the article focused on the abused children that may not have been reported due to inability to speak to intake workers, the state’s hotline also answers all elder abuse calls. (Interestingly, the lengthy article did not include the hotline’s number.)