§1397j Definitions

Summary

Defines key words used for programs about elder safety and services. Abuse means knowingly causing physical or mental harm or knowingly withholding things needed to keep someone safe. Adult protective services are the kinds of help the Secretary lists, including taking and investigating reports, doing case work, and arranging medical, social, legal, housing, law enforcement, or other support and emergency services. Caregiver is anyone responsible for an elder’s care, paid or unpaid, family or other, by contract, law, or choice. Direct care is care given by an employee or contractor who helps a person with assistance or long-term care services. Elder means a person age 60 or older. Elder justice means actions to prevent, find, treat, intervene in, and prosecute elder abuse and to protect elders with reduced capacity while preserving their independence, and it also means recognizing an elder’s right to be free from abuse. Eligible entity is a state or local agency, Indian tribe or tribal group, or any public or private group with elder-justice expertise. Exploitation means illegally or fraudulently using an elder’s money, property, or benefits for someone else’s gain. Fiduciary is a person or entity legally required to act for another’s benefit in good faith and fairness; it includes trustees, guardians, conservators, executors, agents under financial or health care powers of attorney, and representative payees. Grant includes a contract, cooperative agreement, or other way of giving financial help. Guardianship covers the court process that finds an adult lacks decision-making capacity and appoints a guardian or similar surrogate, how that surrogate carries out duties, and how the court oversees the surrogate. Indian tribe has the meaning in 25 U.S.C. 5304 and includes Pueblo and Rancheria. Law enforcement includes the full range of responders to elder abuse, such as police, sheriffs, detectives, corrections staff, prosecutors, medical examiners, investigators, and coroners. Long-term care means the supportive and health services the Secretary specifies for people who need help because they have a loss of capacity for self-care due to illness, disability, or vulnerability. Loss of capacity for self-care means an inability to do one or more activities of daily living, including eating, dressing, bathing, managing one’s financial affairs, and other activities the Secretary lists. Long-term care facility means a residential provider that arranges for or directly provides long-term care. Neglect means a caregiver’s or fiduciary’s failure to provide needed goods or services to keep an elder safe and healthy, or self-neglect. Nursing facility has the meaning in section 1396r(a) and includes a skilled nursing facility as defined in section 1395i–3(a). Self-neglect means an adult cannot, because of physical or mental problems or reduced capacity, do essential self-care tasks like getting food, clothing, shelter, medical care, necessary goods and services for health or safety, or managing finances. Serious bodily injury means an injury that causes extreme physical pain, a substantial risk of death, long-lasting loss or impairment of a body part or mental faculty, or that requires surgery, hospitalization, or physical rehabilitation; it also includes conduct described in 18 U.S.C. 2241 or 2242 or similar state offenses. Social, when used about a service, includes adult protective services. State legal assistance developer means the person described in section 3058j. State Long-Term Care Ombudsman means the official described in section 3058g(a)(2).