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Public Act 099-0530 | ||||
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AN ACT concerning aging.
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, | ||||
represented in the General Assembly:
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Section 5. The Adult Protective Services Act is amended by | ||||
changing Section 15 as follows: | ||||
(320 ILCS 20/15) | ||||
Sec. 15. Fatality Review Teams. | ||||
(a) State policy. | ||||
(1) Both the State and the community maintain a | ||||
commitment to preventing the abuse, neglect, and financial | ||||
exploitation of at-risk adults. This includes a charge to | ||||
bring perpetrators of crimes against at-risk adults to | ||||
justice and prevent untimely deaths in the community. | ||||
(2) When an at-risk adult dies, the response to the | ||||
death by the community, law enforcement, and the State must | ||||
include an accurate and complete determination of the cause | ||||
of death, and the development and implementation of | ||||
measures to prevent future deaths from similar causes. | ||||
(3) Multidisciplinary and multi-agency reviews of | ||||
deaths can assist the State and counties in developing a | ||||
greater understanding of the incidence and causes of | ||||
premature deaths and the methods for preventing those | ||||
deaths, improving methods for investigating deaths, and |
identifying gaps in services to at-risk adults. | ||
(4) Access to information regarding the deceased | ||
person and his or her family by multidisciplinary and | ||
multi-agency fatality review teams is necessary in order to | ||
fulfill their purposes and duties. | ||
(a-5) Definitions. As used in this Section: | ||
"Advisory Council" means the Illinois Fatality Review | ||
Team Advisory Council. | ||
"Review Team" means a regional interagency fatality | ||
review team. | ||
(b) The Director, in consultation with the Advisory | ||
Council, law enforcement, and other professionals who work in | ||
the fields of investigating, treating, or preventing abuse or | ||
neglect of at-risk adults, shall appoint members to a minimum | ||
of one review team in each of the Department's planning and | ||
service areas. Each member of a review team shall be appointed | ||
for a 2-year term and shall be eligible for reappointment upon | ||
the expiration of the term. A review team's purpose in | ||
conducting review of at-risk adult deaths is: (i) to assist | ||
local agencies in identifying and reviewing suspicious deaths | ||
of adult victims of alleged, suspected, or substantiated abuse | ||
or neglect in domestic living situations; (ii) to facilitate | ||
communications between officials responsible for autopsies and | ||
inquests and persons involved in reporting or investigating | ||
alleged or suspected cases of abuse, neglect, or financial | ||
exploitation of at-risk adults and persons involved in |
providing services to at-risk adults; (iii) to evaluate means | ||
by which the death might have been prevented; and (iv) to | ||
report its findings to the appropriate agencies and the | ||
Advisory Council and make recommendations that may help to | ||
reduce the number of at-risk adult deaths caused by abuse and | ||
neglect and that may help to improve the investigations of | ||
deaths of at-risk adults and increase prosecutions, if | ||
appropriate. | ||
(b-5) Each such team shall be composed of representatives | ||
of entities and individuals including, but not limited to: | ||
(1) the Department on Aging; | ||
(2) coroners or medical examiners (or both); | ||
(3) State's Attorneys; | ||
(4) local police departments; | ||
(5) forensic units; | ||
(6) local health departments; | ||
(7) a social service or health care agency that | ||
provides services to persons with mental illness, in a | ||
program whose accreditation to provide such services is | ||
recognized by the Division of Mental Health within the | ||
Department of Human Services; | ||
(8) a social service or health care agency that | ||
provides services to persons with developmental | ||
disabilities, in a program whose accreditation to provide | ||
such services is recognized by the Division of | ||
Developmental Disabilities within the Department of Human |
Services; | ||
(9) a local hospital, trauma center, or provider of | ||
emergency medicine; | ||
(10) providers of services for eligible adults in | ||
domestic living situations; and | ||
(11) a physician, psychiatrist, or other health care | ||
provider knowledgeable about abuse and neglect of at-risk | ||
adults. | ||
(c) A review team shall review cases of deaths of at-risk | ||
adults occurring in its planning and service area (i) involving | ||
blunt force trauma or an undetermined manner or suspicious | ||
cause of death; (ii) if requested by the deceased's attending | ||
physician or an emergency room physician; (iii) upon referral | ||
by a health care provider; (iv) upon referral by a coroner or | ||
medical examiner; (v) constituting an open or closed case from | ||
an adult protective services agency, law enforcement agency, | ||
State's Attorney's office, or the Department of Human Services' | ||
Office of the Inspector General that involves alleged or | ||
suspected abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation; or
(vi) | ||
upon referral by a law enforcement agency or State's Attorney's | ||
office. If such a death occurs in a planning and service area | ||
where a review team has not yet been established, the Director | ||
shall request that the Advisory Council or another review team | ||
review that death. A team may also review deaths of at-risk | ||
adults if the alleged abuse or neglect occurred while the | ||
person was residing in a domestic living situation. |
A review team shall meet not less than 4 6 times a year to | ||
discuss cases for its possible review. Each review team, with | ||
the advice and consent of the Department, shall establish | ||
criteria to be used in discussing cases of alleged, suspected, | ||
or substantiated abuse or neglect for review and shall conduct | ||
its activities in accordance with any applicable policies and | ||
procedures established by the Department. | ||
(c-5) The Illinois Fatality Review Team Advisory Council, | ||
consisting of one member from each review team in Illinois, | ||
shall be the coordinating and oversight body for review teams | ||
and activities in Illinois. The Director may appoint to the | ||
Advisory Council any ex-officio members deemed necessary. | ||
Persons with expertise needed by the Advisory Council may be | ||
invited to meetings. The Advisory Council must select from its | ||
members a chairperson and a vice-chairperson, each to serve a | ||
2-year term. The chairperson or vice-chairperson may be | ||
selected to serve additional, subsequent terms. The Advisory | ||
Council must meet at least 4 times during each calendar year. | ||
The Department may provide or arrange for the staff support | ||
necessary for the Advisory Council to carry out its duties. The | ||
Director, in cooperation and consultation with the Advisory | ||
Council, shall appoint, reappoint, and remove review team | ||
members. | ||
The Advisory Council has, but is not limited to, the | ||
following duties: | ||
(1) To serve as the voice of review teams in Illinois. |
(2) To oversee the review teams in order to ensure that | ||
the review teams' work is coordinated and in compliance | ||
with State statutes and the operating protocol. | ||
(3) To ensure that the data, results, findings, and | ||
recommendations of the review teams are adequately used in | ||
a timely manner to make any necessary changes to the | ||
policies, procedures, and State statutes in order to | ||
protect at-risk adults. | ||
(4) To collaborate with the Department in order to | ||
develop any legislation needed to prevent unnecessary | ||
deaths of at-risk adults. | ||
(5) To ensure that the review teams' review processes | ||
are standardized in order to convey data, findings, and | ||
recommendations in a usable format. | ||
(6) To serve as a link with review teams throughout the | ||
country and to participate in national review team | ||
activities. | ||
(7) To provide the review teams with the most current | ||
information and practices concerning at-risk adult death | ||
review and related topics. | ||
(8) To perform any other functions necessary to enhance | ||
the capability of the review teams to reduce and prevent | ||
at-risk adult fatalities. | ||
The Advisory Council may prepare an annual report, in | ||
consultation with the Department, using aggregate data | ||
gathered by review teams and using the review teams' |
recommendations to develop education, prevention, prosecution, | ||
or other strategies designed to improve the coordination of | ||
services for at-risk adults and their families. | ||
In any instance where a review team does not operate in | ||
accordance with established protocol, the Director, in | ||
consultation and cooperation with the Advisory Council, must | ||
take any necessary actions to bring the review team into | ||
compliance with the protocol. | ||
(d) Any document or oral or written communication shared | ||
within or produced by the review team relating to a case | ||
discussed or reviewed by the review team is confidential and is | ||
not admissible as evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding, | ||
except for use by a State's Attorney's office in prosecuting a | ||
criminal case against a caregiver. Those records and | ||
information are, however, subject to discovery or subpoena, and | ||
are admissible as evidence, to the extent they are otherwise | ||
available to the public. | ||
Any document or oral or written communication provided to a | ||
review team by an individual or entity, and created by that | ||
individual or entity solely for the use of the review team, is | ||
confidential, is not subject to disclosure to or discoverable | ||
by another party, and is not admissible as evidence in any | ||
civil or criminal proceeding, except for use by a State's | ||
Attorney's office in prosecuting a criminal case against a | ||
caregiver. Those records and information are, however, subject | ||
to discovery or subpoena, and are admissible as evidence, to |
the extent they are otherwise available to the public. | ||
Each entity or individual represented on the fatality | ||
review team may share with other members of the team | ||
information in the entity's or individual's possession | ||
concerning the decedent who is the subject of the review or | ||
concerning any person who was in contact with the decedent, as | ||
well as any other information deemed by the entity or | ||
individual to be pertinent to the review. Any such information | ||
shared by an entity or individual with other members of the | ||
review team is confidential. The intent of this paragraph is to | ||
permit the disclosure to members of the review team of any | ||
information deemed confidential or privileged or prohibited | ||
from disclosure by any other provision of law. Release of | ||
confidential communication between domestic violence advocates | ||
and a domestic violence victim shall follow subsection (d) of | ||
Section 227 of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 which | ||
allows for the waiver of privilege afforded to guardians, | ||
executors, or administrators of the estate of the domestic | ||
violence victim. This provision relating to the release of | ||
confidential communication between domestic violence advocates | ||
and a domestic violence victim shall exclude adult protective | ||
service providers.
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A coroner's or medical examiner's office may share with the | ||
review team medical records that have been made available to | ||
the coroner's or medical examiner's office in connection with | ||
that office's investigation of a death. |
Members of a review team and the Advisory Council are not | ||
subject to examination, in any civil or criminal proceeding, | ||
concerning information presented to members of the review team | ||
or the Advisory Council or opinions formed by members of the | ||
review team or the Advisory Council based on that information. | ||
A person may, however, be examined concerning information | ||
provided to a review team or the Advisory Council. | ||
(d-5) Meetings of the review teams and the Advisory Council | ||
may be closed to the public under the Open Meetings Act. | ||
Records and information provided to a review team and the | ||
Advisory Council, and records maintained by a team or the | ||
Advisory Council, are exempt from release under the Freedom of | ||
Information Act. | ||
(e) A review team's recommendation in relation to a case | ||
discussed or reviewed by the review team, including, but not | ||
limited to, a recommendation concerning an investigation or | ||
prosecution, may be disclosed by the review team upon the | ||
completion of its review and at the discretion of a majority of | ||
its members who reviewed the case. | ||
(e-5) The State shall indemnify and hold harmless members | ||
of a review team and the Advisory Council for all their acts, | ||
omissions, decisions, or other conduct arising out of the scope | ||
of their service on the review team or Advisory Council, except | ||
those involving willful or wanton misconduct. The method of | ||
providing indemnification shall be as provided in the State | ||
Employee Indemnification Act. |
(f) The Department, in consultation with coroners, medical | ||
examiners, and law enforcement agencies, shall use aggregate | ||
data gathered by and recommendations from the Advisory Council | ||
and the review teams to create an annual report and may use | ||
those data and recommendations to develop education, | ||
prevention, prosecution, or other strategies designed to | ||
improve the coordination of services for at-risk adults and | ||
their families. The Department or other State or county agency, | ||
in consultation with coroners, medical examiners, and law | ||
enforcement agencies, also may use aggregate data gathered by | ||
the review teams to create a database of at-risk individuals.
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(g) The Department shall adopt such rules and regulations | ||
as it deems necessary to implement this Section. | ||
(Source: P.A. 98-49, eff. 7-1-13; 98-1039, eff. 8-25-14; 99-78, | ||
eff. 7-20-15.)
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