HB4826 EnrolledLRB099 18032 KTG 42395 b

1    AN ACT concerning aging.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The Adult Protective Services Act is amended by
5changing Section 15 as follows:
 
6    (320 ILCS 20/15)
7    Sec. 15. Fatality Review Teams.
8    (a) State policy.
9        (1) Both the State and the community maintain a
10    commitment to preventing the abuse, neglect, and financial
11    exploitation of at-risk adults. This includes a charge to
12    bring perpetrators of crimes against at-risk adults to
13    justice and prevent untimely deaths in the community.
14        (2) When an at-risk adult dies, the response to the
15    death by the community, law enforcement, and the State must
16    include an accurate and complete determination of the cause
17    of death, and the development and implementation of
18    measures to prevent future deaths from similar causes.
19        (3) Multidisciplinary and multi-agency reviews of
20    deaths can assist the State and counties in developing a
21    greater understanding of the incidence and causes of
22    premature deaths and the methods for preventing those
23    deaths, improving methods for investigating deaths, and

 

 

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1    identifying gaps in services to at-risk adults.
2        (4) Access to information regarding the deceased
3    person and his or her family by multidisciplinary and
4    multi-agency fatality review teams is necessary in order to
5    fulfill their purposes and duties.
6    (a-5) Definitions. As used in this Section:
7        "Advisory Council" means the Illinois Fatality Review
8    Team Advisory Council.
9        "Review Team" means a regional interagency fatality
10    review team.
11    (b) The Director, in consultation with the Advisory
12Council, law enforcement, and other professionals who work in
13the fields of investigating, treating, or preventing abuse or
14neglect of at-risk adults, shall appoint members to a minimum
15of one review team in each of the Department's planning and
16service areas. Each member of a review team shall be appointed
17for a 2-year term and shall be eligible for reappointment upon
18the expiration of the term. A review team's purpose in
19conducting review of at-risk adult deaths is: (i) to assist
20local agencies in identifying and reviewing suspicious deaths
21of adult victims of alleged, suspected, or substantiated abuse
22or neglect in domestic living situations; (ii) to facilitate
23communications between officials responsible for autopsies and
24inquests and persons involved in reporting or investigating
25alleged or suspected cases of abuse, neglect, or financial
26exploitation of at-risk adults and persons involved in

 

 

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1providing services to at-risk adults; (iii) to evaluate means
2by which the death might have been prevented; and (iv) to
3report its findings to the appropriate agencies and the
4Advisory Council and make recommendations that may help to
5reduce the number of at-risk adult deaths caused by abuse and
6neglect and that may help to improve the investigations of
7deaths of at-risk adults and increase prosecutions, if
8appropriate.
9    (b-5) Each such team shall be composed of representatives
10of entities and individuals including, but not limited to:
11        (1) the Department on Aging;
12        (2) coroners or medical examiners (or both);
13        (3) State's Attorneys;
14        (4) local police departments;
15        (5) forensic units;
16        (6) local health departments;
17        (7) a social service or health care agency that
18    provides services to persons with mental illness, in a
19    program whose accreditation to provide such services is
20    recognized by the Division of Mental Health within the
21    Department of Human Services;
22        (8) a social service or health care agency that
23    provides services to persons with developmental
24    disabilities, in a program whose accreditation to provide
25    such services is recognized by the Division of
26    Developmental Disabilities within the Department of Human

 

 

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1    Services;
2        (9) a local hospital, trauma center, or provider of
3    emergency medicine;
4        (10) providers of services for eligible adults in
5    domestic living situations; and
6        (11) a physician, psychiatrist, or other health care
7    provider knowledgeable about abuse and neglect of at-risk
8    adults.
9    (c) A review team shall review cases of deaths of at-risk
10adults occurring in its planning and service area (i) involving
11blunt force trauma or an undetermined manner or suspicious
12cause of death; (ii) if requested by the deceased's attending
13physician or an emergency room physician; (iii) upon referral
14by a health care provider; (iv) upon referral by a coroner or
15medical examiner; (v) constituting an open or closed case from
16an adult protective services agency, law enforcement agency,
17State's Attorney's office, or the Department of Human Services'
18Office of the Inspector General that involves alleged or
19suspected abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation; or (vi)
20upon referral by a law enforcement agency or State's Attorney's
21office. If such a death occurs in a planning and service area
22where a review team has not yet been established, the Director
23shall request that the Advisory Council or another review team
24review that death. A team may also review deaths of at-risk
25adults if the alleged abuse or neglect occurred while the
26person was residing in a domestic living situation.

 

 

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1    A review team shall meet not less than 4 6 times a year to
2discuss cases for its possible review. Each review team, with
3the advice and consent of the Department, shall establish
4criteria to be used in discussing cases of alleged, suspected,
5or substantiated abuse or neglect for review and shall conduct
6its activities in accordance with any applicable policies and
7procedures established by the Department.
8    (c-5) The Illinois Fatality Review Team Advisory Council,
9consisting of one member from each review team in Illinois,
10shall be the coordinating and oversight body for review teams
11and activities in Illinois. The Director may appoint to the
12Advisory Council any ex-officio members deemed necessary.
13Persons with expertise needed by the Advisory Council may be
14invited to meetings. The Advisory Council must select from its
15members a chairperson and a vice-chairperson, each to serve a
162-year term. The chairperson or vice-chairperson may be
17selected to serve additional, subsequent terms. The Advisory
18Council must meet at least 4 times during each calendar year.
19    The Department may provide or arrange for the staff support
20necessary for the Advisory Council to carry out its duties. The
21Director, in cooperation and consultation with the Advisory
22Council, shall appoint, reappoint, and remove review team
23members.
24    The Advisory Council has, but is not limited to, the
25following duties:
26        (1) To serve as the voice of review teams in Illinois.

 

 

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1        (2) To oversee the review teams in order to ensure that
2    the review teams' work is coordinated and in compliance
3    with State statutes and the operating protocol.
4        (3) To ensure that the data, results, findings, and
5    recommendations of the review teams are adequately used in
6    a timely manner to make any necessary changes to the
7    policies, procedures, and State statutes in order to
8    protect at-risk adults.
9        (4) To collaborate with the Department in order to
10    develop any legislation needed to prevent unnecessary
11    deaths of at-risk adults.
12        (5) To ensure that the review teams' review processes
13    are standardized in order to convey data, findings, and
14    recommendations in a usable format.
15        (6) To serve as a link with review teams throughout the
16    country and to participate in national review team
17    activities.
18        (7) To provide the review teams with the most current
19    information and practices concerning at-risk adult death
20    review and related topics.
21        (8) To perform any other functions necessary to enhance
22    the capability of the review teams to reduce and prevent
23    at-risk adult fatalities.
24    The Advisory Council may prepare an annual report, in
25consultation with the Department, using aggregate data
26gathered by review teams and using the review teams'

 

 

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1recommendations to develop education, prevention, prosecution,
2or other strategies designed to improve the coordination of
3services for at-risk adults and their families.
4    In any instance where a review team does not operate in
5accordance with established protocol, the Director, in
6consultation and cooperation with the Advisory Council, must
7take any necessary actions to bring the review team into
8compliance with the protocol.
9    (d) Any document or oral or written communication shared
10within or produced by the review team relating to a case
11discussed or reviewed by the review team is confidential and is
12not admissible as evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding,
13except for use by a State's Attorney's office in prosecuting a
14criminal case against a caregiver. Those records and
15information are, however, subject to discovery or subpoena, and
16are admissible as evidence, to the extent they are otherwise
17available to the public.
18    Any document or oral or written communication provided to a
19review team by an individual or entity, and created by that
20individual or entity solely for the use of the review team, is
21confidential, is not subject to disclosure to or discoverable
22by another party, and is not admissible as evidence in any
23civil or criminal proceeding, except for use by a State's
24Attorney's office in prosecuting a criminal case against a
25caregiver. Those records and information are, however, subject
26to discovery or subpoena, and are admissible as evidence, to

 

 

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1the extent they are otherwise available to the public.
2    Each entity or individual represented on the fatality
3review team may share with other members of the team
4information in the entity's or individual's possession
5concerning the decedent who is the subject of the review or
6concerning any person who was in contact with the decedent, as
7well as any other information deemed by the entity or
8individual to be pertinent to the review. Any such information
9shared by an entity or individual with other members of the
10review team is confidential. The intent of this paragraph is to
11permit the disclosure to members of the review team of any
12information deemed confidential or privileged or prohibited
13from disclosure by any other provision of law. Release of
14confidential communication between domestic violence advocates
15and a domestic violence victim shall follow subsection (d) of
16Section 227 of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 which
17allows for the waiver of privilege afforded to guardians,
18executors, or administrators of the estate of the domestic
19violence victim. This provision relating to the release of
20confidential communication between domestic violence advocates
21and a domestic violence victim shall exclude adult protective
22service providers.
23    A coroner's or medical examiner's office may share with the
24review team medical records that have been made available to
25the coroner's or medical examiner's office in connection with
26that office's investigation of a death.

 

 

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1    Members of a review team and the Advisory Council are not
2subject to examination, in any civil or criminal proceeding,
3concerning information presented to members of the review team
4or the Advisory Council or opinions formed by members of the
5review team or the Advisory Council based on that information.
6A person may, however, be examined concerning information
7provided to a review team or the Advisory Council.
8    (d-5) Meetings of the review teams and the Advisory Council
9may be closed to the public under the Open Meetings Act.
10Records and information provided to a review team and the
11Advisory Council, and records maintained by a team or the
12Advisory Council, are exempt from release under the Freedom of
13Information Act.
14    (e) A review team's recommendation in relation to a case
15discussed or reviewed by the review team, including, but not
16limited to, a recommendation concerning an investigation or
17prosecution, may be disclosed by the review team upon the
18completion of its review and at the discretion of a majority of
19its members who reviewed the case.
20    (e-5) The State shall indemnify and hold harmless members
21of a review team and the Advisory Council for all their acts,
22omissions, decisions, or other conduct arising out of the scope
23of their service on the review team or Advisory Council, except
24those involving willful or wanton misconduct. The method of
25providing indemnification shall be as provided in the State
26Employee Indemnification Act.

 

 

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1    (f) The Department, in consultation with coroners, medical
2examiners, and law enforcement agencies, shall use aggregate
3data gathered by and recommendations from the Advisory Council
4and the review teams to create an annual report and may use
5those data and recommendations to develop education,
6prevention, prosecution, or other strategies designed to
7improve the coordination of services for at-risk adults and
8their families. The Department or other State or county agency,
9in consultation with coroners, medical examiners, and law
10enforcement agencies, also may use aggregate data gathered by
11the review teams to create a database of at-risk individuals.
12    (g) The Department shall adopt such rules and regulations
13as it deems necessary to implement this Section.
14(Source: P.A. 98-49, eff. 7-1-13; 98-1039, eff. 8-25-14; 99-78,
15eff. 7-20-15.)