Identifies persons to be mandatory reporters of senior abuse or maltreatment; describes the procedures and steps to be taken to report senior abuse to adult protective services.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6136
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 5, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Aging
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to mandatory
reporting of senior abuse or maltreatment
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Article 9-B of the social services law is amended by adding
2 a new title 4 to read as follows:
3 TITLE 4
4 DUTY TO REPORT SENIOR ABUSE
5 Section 473-f. Duty to report senior abuse.
6 § 473-f. Duty to report senior abuse. 1. As used in this section:
7 (a) "Senior" means a person sixty years of age or older.
8 (b) "Person legally responsible for a senior" means and includes the
9 senior's custodian, guardian or any other person formally or informally
10 responsible for the senior's care at the relevant time, any person
11 acting with power of attorney, trustee appointed by a court, or any
12 person who by consent, contract or legal order acts to arrange the
13 affairs of the senior.
14 (c) "Abused senior" means and includes a senior abused in any of the
15 following manners:
16 (i) "Physical abuse" means the non-accidental use of force that
17 results in the suffering of bodily injury, physical pain or impairment
18 resulting from the use of physical force against a senior, including but
19 not limited to, striking with or without an object, hitting, beating,
20 pushing, shoving, shaking, kicking, pinching, being slapped, burned,
21 cut, bruised or improperly physically restrained. Physical abuse also
22 includes any physical signs of impairment or of being subjected to
23 punishment, or signs of being restrained, or a senior's report of being
24 hit, slapped, kicked, or mistreated.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10666-01-5
S. 6136 2
1 (ii) "Sexual abuse" means non-consensual sexual contact of any kind
2 with a senior, including but not limited to, unwanted touching, sexual
3 assault or battery, rape, sodomy, coerced nudity, and sexually explicit
4 photographing, forcing sexual contact or forcing sex with a third party.
5 (iii) "Emotional or psychological abuse" means willful infliction of
6 mental or emotional anguish by threat, humiliation, intimidation or
7 other abusive conduct, including but not limited to, frightening or
8 isolating an adult. Emotional or psychological abuse may also include
9 the infliction of anguish, pain or distress through verbal or nonverbal
10 acts, including but not limited to verbal assaults, insults, threats,
11 intimidation, humiliation, and harassment, infantilizing a senior,
12 isolating a senior from such senior's family, friends or regular activ-
13 ities, or enforced social isolation, the results of which may be evinced
14 by impairments including but not limited to the caregiver's refusal to
15 allow visitors to see a senior alone, or changes in the senior's behav-
16 ior that result in the senior being emotionally upset or agitated, being
17 extremely withdrawn and noncommunicative or nonresponsive, unusual
18 behavior usually attributed to dementia (e.g. sucking, biting, rock-
19 ing).
20 (iv) "Neglect" means the refusal or failure to fulfill any part of a
21 person's obligations or duties to a senior, failure of a person who has
22 fiduciary responsibilities to provide care for a senior or the failure
23 on the part of an in-home service provider to provide such necessary
24 care, including the refusal or failure to provide an elderly person with
25 such life necessities as food, water, clothing, shelter, personal
26 hygiene, medicine, comfort, personal safety, and other essentials
27 included in an implied or agreed-upon responsibility to such senior, the
28 results of which may be evinced by such visible physical impairments as
29 dehydration, malnutrition, untreated bed sores, and poor personal
30 hygiene, unattended or untreated health problems, hazardous or unsafe
31 living conditions/arrangements, unsanitary and unclean living conditions
32 (e.g. dirt, fleas, lice on person, soiled bedding, fecal/urine smell,
33 inadequate clothing).
34 (v) "Abandonment" means the desertion of a senior by an individual who
35 has assumed responsibility for providing care for such senior, or by a
36 person with physical custody of a senior, including but not limited to
37 the desertion of a senior at a hospital, a nursing facility, or other
38 similar institution, or the desertion of a senior at a shopping center
39 or other public location; or a senior's report of being abandoned.
40 (vi) "Financial or material exploitation" means the illegal or improp-
41 er use of a senior's funds, property, or assets, including without limi-
42 tation cashing a senior's checks without authorization or permission,
43 forging a senior's signature, misusing or stealing a senior's money or
44 possessions, coercing or deceiving a senior into signing a document such
45 as a contract or a will, or improper use of conservatorship, guardian-
46 ship, or power of attorney.
47 (vii) "Self-neglect" means the behavior of an elderly person that
48 threatens their own health or safety through the refusal or failure to
49 provide themselves with adequate food, water, clothing, shelter,
50 personal hygiene, medication (when indicated), and safety precautions.
51 2. Adult protective services shall establish a registry that shall be
52 capable of receiving reports by telephone, fax, e-mail, and any other
53 forms of communication the local commissioner of social services deems
54 appropriate, alleging that a senior has become an abused senior, or
55 immediately identifying prior reports of abuse involving such senior or
56 other persons named in the report.
S. 6136 3
1 3. The following persons are required to report or cause a report to
2 be made in accordance with this section when, while acting in their
3 professional or official capacity, they have reasonable cause to suspect
4 that a senior coming before them is an abused senior, or when they have
5 reasonable cause to suspect that a senior is an abused senior, as
6 defined in subdivision one of this section:
7 (a) any health care worker, including any physician, physician assist-
8 ant, surgeon, medical examiner, coroner, dentist, dental hygienist,
9 osteopath, optometrist, chiropractor, podiatrist, resident, intern,
10 psychologist, registered nurse, emergency medical technician, or any
11 hospital or nursing home and assisted living personnel engaged in the
12 admission, examination, care or treatment of persons, or any other
13 health care or health services practitioner, including a Christian
14 Science practitioner, acupuncturist, or other such person;
15 (b) any social worker, social services worker, or any provider of
16 family or group family day care;
17 (c) any mental health professional, substance abuse counselor or alco-
18 holism counselor;
19 (d) any person, including a director, operator, employee, volunteer,
20 or contractor, in a public, private, or not-for-profit facility which
21 provides care to one or more seniors and which is licensed or registered
22 pursuant to the provisions of this chapter or the public health law;
23 (e) any peace officer, police officer, district attorney or assistant
24 district attorney, investigator employed in the office of a district
25 attorney or other law enforcement official; and
26 (f) any banker, financial consultant, attorney, or paralegal with
27 access to a senior's financial records or resources or legal documents
28 or who possesses power of attorney for such senior.
29 The local commissioner of social services shall further define and
30 enumerate in regulations persons and occupations which are required to
31 report when they suspect that a senior has become an abused senior.
32 4. Reports of senior abuse made pursuant to this section shall be made
33 within forty-eight hours of discovery to adult protective services by
34 telephone, fax, e-mail or any other communication protocol on a form
35 supplied by the local commissioner of social services. Oral reports
36 shall be followed by a report in writing within forty-eight hours after
37 such oral report.
38 5. Written reports shall be made in a manner prescribed by and on
39 forms supplied by the local commissioner of social services and shall
40 include the following information:
41 (a) the name and address of the senior;
42 (b) the person responsible for such senior's care, if known;
43 (c) the name and address of the care facility or program in which the
44 senior resides or is receiving care;
45 (d) the senior's age, sex and race;
46 (e) the nature and extent of the injuries, abuse or maltreatment,
47 including any evidence of prior injuries, abuse or maltreatment;
48 (f) the name of the person or persons alleged to be responsible for
49 causing the injury, abuse or maltreatment, if known;
50 (g) family composition, where appropriate;
51 (h) the source of the report;
52 (i) the person making the report and where they can be reached;
53 (j) the actions taken by the reporting source, including the taking of
54 photographs and technological scans, or notifying the medical examiner
55 or coroner; and
S. 6136 4
1 (k) any other information which the local commissioner of social
2 services may by regulation require, or which the person making the
3 report believes might be helpful, in the furtherance of the intent and
4 purposes of this article.
5 6. Whenever such person required to report under this section in their
6 capacity as a member of the staff of a medical or other public or
7 private institution, facility or agency, such person shall make the
8 report as required by this section and immediately notify the person in
9 charge of such institution, facility or agency, or the designated agent
10 of such person. Such person in charge, or the designated agent of such
11 person, shall be responsible for all subsequent administration necessi-
12 tated by the report. Nothing in this section is intended to require more
13 than one report from any such institution, facility or agency.
14 7. A person or official required to report suspected senior abuse or
15 maltreatment who has reasonable cause to suspect that a senior died as a
16 result of abuse or maltreatment shall report the fact to the appropriate
17 medical examiner or coroner. The medical examiner or coroner shall
18 accept the report for investigation and shall report their finding to
19 the police, the appropriate district attorney, the local social services
20 office, and, if the institution making the report is a hospital, the
21 hospital.
22 8. A medical or other public or private institution, facility or agen-
23 cy shall not take any retaliatory personnel action, as such term is
24 defined in paragraph (e) of subdivision one of section seven hundred
25 forty of the labor law, against an employee because such employee
26 believes that they have reasonable cause to suspect that an individual
27 coming before them is a victim of senior abuse and that employee there-
28 fore makes a report in accordance with this section. No residential care
29 facility provider, hospital, medical institution provider or mental
30 health facility provider shall impose any conditions, including prior
31 approval or prior notification, upon a member of their staff specif-
32 ically required to report under this section. At the time of the making
33 of a report, or at any time thereafter, such person or official may
34 exercise the right to request the findings of an investigation made
35 pursuant to this section.
36 9. Any person, institution, facility, agency, organization, partner-
37 ship or corporation which employs persons mandated to report suspected
38 senior abuse shall provide all such current and new employees with writ-
39 ten information explaining the reporting requirements set out in this
40 section. The employers shall be responsible for the costs associated
41 with printing and distributing the written information.
42 10. Any person, official or institution required by this section to
43 report a case of suspected abuse or maltreatment of a senior who will-
44 fully fails to do so shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor and shall
45 be civilly liable for the damages proximately caused by such failure.
46 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. Effective immediately the
47 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary
48 for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
49 to be made and completed on or before such date.
