Pennsylvania Code › Title 6 - AGING › Part I - Department of Aging › Chapter 15 - PROTECTIVE SERVICES FOR OLDER ADULTS › REPORTING SUSPECTED ABUSE, NEGLECT, ABANDONMENT OR EXPLOITATION › Section 15.23 - Receiving reports; general agency responsibility

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a)
Twenty-four hour
				  capability.
The agency shall be capable of receiving reports of older
				  adults in need of protective services 24-hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week-including
				  holidays. This capability may include the use of a local emergency response
				  system or a crisis intervention agency.
(b)
Accessibility of professional
				  staff.
Regardless of the arrangements made by the agency to receive
				  reports outside the normal business hours of the agency, the agency shall
				  provide 24-hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week-including holidays-accessibility to a
				  protective services caseworker by a person receiving reports so that referrals
				  required under §
										15.26(b) (relating
				  to screening and referral of reports received) may be made for immediate
				  attention. If this accessibility is provided by means of telephone, telephone
				  paging device or other alternatives to direct physical presence, the protective
				  services caseworker shall be capable of returning the call within 30
				  minutes.
(c)
Toll-free
				  public telephone access.
To facilitate reporting of older adults in
				  need of protective services, the agency shall provide toll-free telephone
				  access to persons residing in the planning and service area served by the
				  agency. If possible, the agency shall utilize the same telephone number
				  everywhere in the planning and service area at all times. This number shall be
				  extensively publicized throughout the planning and service area with special
				  emphasis on older adults and persons likely to be in contact with victims or
				  perpetrators of abuse, neglect, exploitation and abandonment.
(d)
Reports from outside the planning
				  and service area.
The agency shall receive all reports made regardless
				  of their place of origin or the location in this Commonwealth of the older
				  adult in need of protective services. If the older adult who is the subject of
				  a report does not reside in the planning and service area of the agency or, at
				  that time, is not in the planning and service area, the agency shall notify the
				  agency which provides protective services in the planning and service area
				  where the older adult is located and relay to that agency the information
				  received in the report.
This section cited in 6 Pa. Code §
												15.2 (relating to definitions); 6
						Pa. Code §
												15.26 (relating to screening and
						referral of reports received); 6 Pa. Code §
												15.41 (relating to reports required
						to be investigated); 6 Pa. Code §
												15.44 (relating to resolution of
						substantiated reports); 6 Pa. Code §
												15.105 (relating to limited access
						to records and disclosure of information); and 6 Pa. Code §
												15.112 (relating to uses of funding
						authorized by the act); 55 Pa. Code §
												2600.15 (relating to abuse
						reporting covered by law); and 55 Pa. Code §
												2800.15 (relating to abuse
						reporting covered by law).