Testimony in Support of AB 400
December 16, 2021
Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety
RE: Testimony in Support of AB 400
Dear Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety:
The Community Housing Task Force for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Wisconsin (CHTFWI) is writing to express our strong support for AB 400: relating to responses to reports relating to elder adults at risk and adults-at-risk.
CHTFWI works to find safe and quality living solutions for individuals with developmental disabilities in Wisconsin. AB 400 would provide better protection for adults with disabilities and all at-risk adults[1] by improving our state’s abuse and neglect reporting process. We testify that the current reporting system routinely fails and needs a shift in policy to best protect vulnerable individuals.
AB 400 would improve the current abuse and neglect reporting system for at-risk adults. Protocol now allows for adult protective services[2] to decide on a case-by-case basis which reports get investigated. This process ensures that a portion of reports will not get investigated and allows for certain cases of abuse and neglect to continue and go unchecked. We strongly support AB 400 because it will require that all allegations of abuse and neglect of at-risk-adults will be properly investigated.
Wisconsin is currently facing a Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis that causes facilities to close and the remaining ones to be short-staffed. These circumstances contribute to increased instances of abuse and neglect of at-risk adults. We feel that requiring a qualified person to investigate every report of abuse or neglect of an adult-at-risk is a feasible way to protect people living in understaffed or underfunded care environments. If we continue to allow reports of this nature to go uninvestigated, abuse and neglect cases will continue to increase[3].
Disability Rights Wisconsin (DRW) and others have identified that this bill simply makes the adult-at-risk reporting system equivalent to the elder abuse reporting system, which has always required a qualified individual to respond to all allegations of abuse or neglect. We firmly believe that younger adults with disabilities deserve the same protection as our vulnerable elders and that the state has a responsibility to ensure their safety by taking the same precautions.
Thank you for your leadership.
The Community Housing Task Force for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Wisconsin
[1] an adult-at-risk is any adult who has a physical or mental condition that substantially impairs his or her ability to care for his or her needs and who has experienced, is currently experiencing, or is at risk of experiencing abuse, neglect, self− neglect, or financial exploitation.
[2] APS, CPS, DHS, DCF and/ or Family Care MCOs
[3] DHS’ Division of Quality Assurance’s monthly release of “statements of deficiency” show that the volume of deficiencies increased since the DQA resumed in-person surveys following the initial wave of COVID.