A mother slapped her autistic son after years of 24/7 care without respite. An adult son lives with his older parents, pays expenses with their retirement funds and, according to his visiting siblings, frequently yells at them.
These are the kinds of cases that Vermont Adult Protective Services caseworkers regularly review but, under the current law, have no formal way to address. Adopted in 1979, the statutes that created the protective services division give its staff one path, oriented almost entirely on the person who may be inflicting harm.
“I’ve joked that the law is older than me,” said Shawna Mead, a field supervisor with 15 years of history in the division, which is part of the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living.
Mead and her colleagues have worked together with advocates for vulnerable adults since 2020 to develop a revision that better fits modern realities. The proposed changes to the law are now under consideration in the House Committee on Human Services as H.171.
The revision seeks to move the focus of any action plan from the possible offender to the vulnerable adult who may have been victimized. It also would give Adult Protective Services a broader set of tools to intervene and improve the situation.
“A high percentage of our offenders are either related to their victims or are in a caregiving role,” Mead said. “No matter what kind of steps we may take, when we then exit, that relationship is likely to continue.”
The process APS can follow as defined in the current law is rigid.
First, staff screen and then investigate reports of abuse, neglect or exploitation of adults made vulnerable by disability or infirmity. The office received around 3,600 calls and opened 876 investigations in 2022. A serious crime gets referred to law enforcement. If the report can be “substantiated,” the person responsible for the harm is put on the Adult Abuse Registry, which would flag their conduct for any potential employer.
The focus on the registry harkens back to a time when most people with disabilities, young or old, lived in institutions, which is no longer the case, APS administrators told legislators in recent weeks. Putting an unpaid caregiver on a registry is not usually relevant, they said.
The new law would provide a pre-investigative step, an assessment, which would focus on shoring up services for the vulnerable adult and determining that person’s wishes or goals. It also would give the division more leeway to use restorative justice techniques such as mediation.
“The assessment focuses more on, what are the needs of the victim, what are the needs of this family and this situation, as opposed to just did maltreatment occur,” Mead said.
Advocates, legislators and APS administrators are still hashing out points of disagreement. Several hours of committee discussion and multiple dueling memos centered around whether to include a “the” in the definition of who is a vulnerable adult.
Those discussions are expected to wrap up soon. With 10 out of the 11 members of the committee listed as sponsors, the bill is expected to win approval. It would then move to the House Judiciary Committee for a review of its alignment with criminal law.
“I think universally we all agree that this is a good thing, whether we disagree on the finer details,” Ruby Baker, executive director of the Community of Vermont Elders. “This is a vast improvement and will protect vulnerable adults better.”
