BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2379
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AUTHOR: Weber
B
VERSION: April 22, 2014
HEARING DATE: June 10, 2014
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FISCAL: No
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CONSULTANT: Mareva Brown
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SUBJECT
Abuse of elders and dependent adults: multidisciplinary
teams
SUMMARY
This bill adds child welfare services personnel to the list
of persons who may be included in multidisciplinary teams
that are trained in the prevention, identification,
management, or treatment of abuse of elderly or dependent
adults.
ABSTRACT
Existing law :
1) Establishes the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult
Civil Protection Act to, among other intents, direct
special attention to the needs and problems of elderly
persons, recognizing that these persons constitute a
significant and identifiable segment of the population
and that they are more subject to risks of abuse,
neglect, and abandonment. (WIC 15610, et seq.)
Continued---
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2) Defines within the context of this section a
"Multidisciplinary personnel team" as any team of two
or more persons who are trained in the prevention,
identification, management, or treatment of abuse of
elderly or dependent adults and who are qualified to
provide a broad range of services related to abuse of
elderly or dependent adults. (WIC 15610.55 (a))
3) Defines those who may participate in a
multidisciplinary personnel team to include, but need
not be limited to, any of the following:
a. Psychiatrists, psychologists, or other
trained counseling personnel.
b. Police officers or other law enforcement
agents.
c. Medical personnel with sufficient
training to provide health services.
d. Social workers with experience or
training in prevention of abuse of elderly or
dependent adults.
e. Public guardians.
f. The local long-term care ombudsman. (WIC
15610.55)
4) Permits persons who are trained and qualified to
serve on multidisciplinary personnel teams to disclose
to one another information and records which are
relevant to the prevention, identification, or
treatment of abuse of elderly or dependent persons
(WIC 15754).
5) Establishes that the activities of a
multidisciplinary personnel team engaged in the
prevention, identification, management, or treatment
of child abuse or neglect, or of the abuse of elder or
dependent persons are activities performed in the
administration of public social services. (WIC
10850.1)
6) Permits a member of the team to disclose and
exchange any information or writing that also is kept
or maintained in connection with any program of public
social services or otherwise designated as
confidential under state law which he or she
reasonably believes is relevant to the prevention,
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identification, management, or treatment of child
abuse or neglect, or of the abuse of elder or
dependent persons to other members of the team.
Requires that all discussions relative to the
disclosure or exchange of any such information or
writing during team meetings are confidential. (WIC
10850.1)
This bill:
1) Adds child welfare services personnel to the six
existing identified members of the multidisciplinary
personnel team members.
FISCAL IMPACT
This bill has been identified as non-fiscal by the Office
of Legislative Counsel.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
According to the author, this bill makes a modest change to
existing statute that will increase the ability of local
abuse prevention teams to collaborate in order to identify
potential risk in caregivers of older or dependent adults
who may have been known to abuse or neglect children in
their care in the past. Current law does not identify child
welfare staff as members who may be included on an elder
abuse multidisciplinary personnel team, which is tasked
with prevention efforts and authorized to share information
in individual case files.
The author states that two recent cases in San Diego of
young adults with intellectual disabilities who reportedly
were being abused by a parent. Adult Protective Services
workers in these two cases are precluded by law from asking
for case information from child welfare workers. In 2010,
a 28-year-old San Diego County man died after he was
neglected by his mother and brother. According to the
author, it is important to prevent further abuses for
county adult protection workers to have the ability to know
if parents who have abused and neglected their children are
being assigned as caregivers when the children become
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dependent adults.
Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act
The Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection act
was passed in 1982 in recognition that vulnerable elderly
adults may be subjected to abuse, neglect or abandonment
and a significant number of them may have mental or verbal
limitations and that the state has a duty to protect them.
Among the elements of the act is the establishment of
multidisciplinary personnel teams who are composed of two
or more public social service professionals engaged in the
prevention, identification, management, or treatment of
child abuse or neglect, or of the abuse of elder or
dependent persons. Team members specifically identified in
statute may include psychiatrists or psychologists, police
officers, medical personnel, social workers with experience
in elder and dependent abuse, public guardians and the
long-term care ombudsman.
The law grants members of the team permission to disclose
and exchange any information or writing that also is kept
or maintained in connection with any program of public
social services or otherwise designated as confidential
under state law which he or she reasonably believes is
relevant to the prevention, identification, management, or
treatment of child abuse or neglect, or of the abuse of
elder or dependent persons to other members of the team.
Adult Protective Services
In California, each county oversees its own Adult
Protective Services (APS) agency to investigate abuse,
neglect or exploitation of elder and dependent adults or
assist them when they are unable to meet their own needs.
In March, according to the Department of Social Services,
there were roughly 15,000 reports of adult and dependent
abuse statewide, and approximately 10,500 of them were
against elders. APS may conduct needs assessments, create
an abuse reporting system, and provide preventative
services, including food, transportation, emergency shelter
and in-home protective care. Each county also may use a
multidisciplinary team to coordinate with community
resources.
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Child Welfare
Each county also oversees its own Child Welfare Services
(CWS) system, designed to respond to and investigate claims
of child abuse or neglect. If an allegation is
substantiated, and a child is placed into the custody of
the juvenile court for protection, child welfare
caseworkers oversee the child's care in a foster home or
other out-of-home placement, as well as efforts of the
family to reunify with the child. Case files typically have
extensive information on a family's history.
PRIOR VOTES
Assembly Floor 78 - 0
Assembly Judiciary 10 - 0
Assembly Human Services 7 - 0
POSITIONS
Support: County of San Diego (sponsor)
California Probation, Parole and
Correctional Association
AFSCME
National Association of Social Workers -
California Chapter
Office of the District Attorney of San Diego
County
Urban Counties Caucus
Oppose: None received
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