Last year, Vermont governor Shumlin vetoed a bill thatrequired the Agency of Human Services (AHS) to send monthly updates on how it respondsto elder abuse reports. He reasoned it was an undue burden on the agency. Thislegislative session both the Senate and the House have proposed a bill similarto the one vetoed by the governor. However, this one has removed some of themore difficult and tedious reporting requirements. The bill highlights a hugeproblem of elder abuse, which has been on the rise in recent years. One of the goalsof the bill is to figure out why reports of elder abuse are not followed upwith. The national average in substantiating elder abuse claims is 42%.However, in Vermont elder abuse claims are only 14% substantiated. Missing fromthe new bill is the $75,000 budget to hire an independent evaluator to assessthe Adult Protective Services processes.
See Alicia Freese, Shumlin Expected to Sign Watered-Down Elder Abuse Bill, VT Digger, May 22, 2013.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
