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Caregiver Abuse

According to WV Code §9-6-1, a "Caregiver is an adult who has or shares actual physical possession or care of an incapacitated adult on a full-time or temporary basis, regardless of whether such person has been designated as guardian of such adult by any contract, agreement or legal proceeding. Caregiver includes health care providers, family members, and any person who otherwise voluntarily accepts a supervisory role toward an incapacitated adult."

Abuse is defined as "the infliction or threat to inflict physical pain or injury on or the imprisonment of any incapacitated adult or facility resident."

Caregiver abuse can happen in any place that a person relies on someone's ongoing help - whether the caregiver is paid or not. It can occur in a personal care home, in a nursing or group home, a hospital, a school, in rehabilitation programs, and even a person's home.

The WVDHHR, Adult Protective Services Program (APS), reports "abuse, neglect, and exploitation of vulnerable and incapacitated adults have been steadily rising over the past several years on the national level as well as within West Virginia. The majority of 85% of the reports received in WV involve abuse or neglect that happened in the adult's home. The remaining reports (15%) involve abuse of neglect of an adult living in a residential facility such as a nursing home, residential board and care home and personal care home."

Additional information from the WVDHHR, "shows that during 1999, 6600 reports of abuse and neglect of adults were received and investigated by the Department of Health and Human Resources. This is about a 5.5% increase from the previous year."

At risk populations (statistics obtained from US Census Bureau, Census 2000) in West Virginia include:

• Institutionalized population of 24,009
• Population with a disability (5-65+ years of age) 410,781
• Senior population (age 65 and over) 276,895

At risk populations (statistics obtained from the OHFLAC) can be found in the following West Virginia facilities:

• 62 licensed group homes
• 141 nursing homes
• over 100 behavioral health facilities
• 67 hospitals
• over 350 legally unlicensed registered personal care homes

How common is caregiver abuse?

Because of how much power caregivers have and how much abuse occurs "behind closed doors, we cannot state for certain." But we do know some things:

• People with disabilities are between 2 and 5 times as likely to be abused as non-disabled people. (Sobsey & Doe, 1994)
• Although it is difficult to separate abuse perpetrated by paid caregivers from unpaid caregivers and family members, data provided from hospitals, institutions and non-family residences suggest that a large proportion of abuse of people with disabilities is done by paid caregivers. (Roeher Institute, 1995)
• In residential schools, included specialized treatment programs, schools for the deaf, blind, or developmentally disabled, the rate of sexual, physical and mental abuse is up to 3 times the non-residential rate. (Nosek, Crosse, Kay 1993)
• Elderly abused at 1 in 3 nursing homes nationwide. (ABC News, 2001)
• National study in 1996 found that 551,011, age 60 and over, experienced abuse, neglect in a one year period.

What can we do?

We all have a responsibility for ensuring at risk populations are not abused! If we ignore the statistics, we are saying our society does not value these folks! Creating a Caregiver Abuse Registry will protect our at-risk citizens, promote accountability and stop repeat offenders, decrease abuse statistics, improve the level of care provided to individuals and identify offenders who have relocated from other states to obtain similar employment.

Updated: January 17, 2004

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