(320 ILCS 20/3) (from Ch. 23, par. 6603)

Sec. 3. Responsibilities.

(a) The Department shall establish, design, and manage a protective services program for eligible adults who have been, or are alleged to be, victims of abuse, abandonment, neglect, financial exploitation, or self-neglect. The Department shall contract with or fund, or contract with and fund, regional administrative agencies, provider agencies, or both, for the provision of those functions, and, contingent on adequate funding, with attorneys or legal services provider agencies for the provision of legal assistance pursuant to this Act. For self-neglect, the program shall include the following services for eligible adults who have been removed from their residences for the purpose of cleanup or repairs: temporary housing; counseling; and caseworker services to try to ensure that the conditions necessitating the removal do not reoccur.

(a-1) The Department shall by rule develop standards for minimum staffing levels and staff qualifications. The Department shall by rule establish mandatory standards for the investigation of abuse, abandonment, neglect, financial exploitation, or self-neglect of eligible adults and mandatory procedures for linking eligible adults to appropriate services and supports.

(a-5) A provider agency shall, in accordance with rules promulgated by the Department, establish a multi-disciplinary team to act in an advisory role for the purpose of providing professional knowledge and expertise in the handling of complex abuse cases involving eligible adults. Each multi-disciplinary team shall consist of one volunteer representative from the following professions: banking or finance; disability care; health care; law; law enforcement; mental health care; and clergy. A provider agency may also choose to add representatives from the fields of substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, or other related fields. To support multi-disciplinary teams in this role, law enforcement agencies and coroners or medical examiners shall supply records as may be requested in particular cases.

(b) Each regional administrative agency shall designate provider agencies within its planning and service area with prior approval by the Department on Aging, monitor the use of services, provide technical assistance to the provider agencies and be involved in program development activities.

(c) Provider agencies shall assist, to the extent possible, eligible adults who need agency services to allow them to continue to function independently. Such assistance shall include, but not be limited to, receiving reports of alleged or suspected abuse, abandonment, neglect, financial exploitation, or self-neglect, conducting face-to-face assessments of such reported cases, determination of substantiated cases, referral of substantiated cases for necessary support services, referral of criminal conduct to law enforcement in accordance with Department guidelines, and provision of case work and follow-up services on substantiated cases. In the case of a report of alleged or suspected abuse, abandonment, or neglect that places an eligible adult at risk of injury or death, a provider agency shall respond to the report on an emergency basis in accordance with guidelines established by the Department by administrative rule and shall ensure that it is capable of responding to such a report 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. A provider agency may use an on-call system to respond to reports of alleged or suspected abuse, abandonment, or neglect after hours and on weekends.

(c-5) Where a provider agency has reason to believe that the death of an eligible adult may be the result of abuse, abandonment, or neglect, including any reports made after death, the agency shall immediately report the matter to both the appropriate law enforcement agency and the coroner or medical examiner. Between 30 and 45 days after making such a report, the provider agency again shall contact the law enforcement agency and coroner or medical examiner to determine whether any further action was taken. Upon request by a provider agency, a law enforcement agency and coroner or medical examiner shall supply a summary of its action in response to a reported death of an eligible adult. A copy of the report shall be maintained and all subsequent follow-up with the law enforcement agency and coroner or medical examiner shall be documented in the case record of the eligible adult. If the law enforcement agency, coroner, or medical examiner determines the reported death was caused by abuse, abandonment, or neglect by a caregiver, the law enforcement agency, coroner, or medical examiner shall inform the Department, and the Department shall report the caregiver's identity on the Registry as described in Section 7.5 of this Act.

(d) Upon sufficient appropriations to implement a statewide program, the Department shall implement a program, based on the recommendations of the Self-Neglect Steering Committee, for (i) responding to reports of possible self-neglect, (ii) protecting the autonomy, rights, privacy, and privileges of adults during investigations of possible self-neglect and consequential judicial proceedings regarding competency, (iii) collecting and sharing relevant information and data among the Department, provider agencies, regional administrative agencies, and relevant seniors, (iv) developing working agreements between provider agencies and law enforcement, where practicable, and (v) developing procedures for collecting data regarding incidents of self-neglect.

(Source: P.A. 102-244, eff. 1-1-22.)