SB 1054

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law establishes various public social services programs to provide for protection, care, and assistance to the people of the state in need of those services. Existing law, in this regard, and with some exceptions, requires all applications and records concerning any individual made or kept by any public officer or agency in connection with the administration of public social services for which grants-in-aid are received by this state from the federal government be kept confidential. This bill would specifically include within public social services for that confidentiality requirement protective services provided through public social services agencies. Existing law exempts from the confidentiality requirement described above, among other things, the furnishing of information to other public agencies to the extent required for verifying eligibility or for other purposes directly connected with the administration of public social services, and the furnishing of information to county superintendents of schools or superintendents of school districts only as necessary for the administration of federally assisted programs providing assistance in cash or in-kind or services directly to individuals on the basis of need. This bill would also exempt from those confidentiality provisions the disclosure of information between employees of a county's adult protective services agency and a county's child welfare agency for the purpose of multidisciplinary teamwork in the prevention, intervention, management, or treatment of child abuse or neglect or abuse or neglect of an elder or dependent adult. (2) Existing law designates certain persons as mandated reporters and requires a mandated reporter who has observed, has knowledge of, or reasonably suspects abuse, including financial abuse, or neglect, of an elder or dependent adult to report the known or suspected abuse or neglect immediately or as soon as practicable to the local ombudsperson or law enforcement agency, as provided. Existing law also authorizes a person who is not a mandated reporter, who knows, or reasonably suspects, that an elder or a dependent adult has been the victim of abuse to report that abuse to a long-term care ombudsperson program or local law enforcement agency. Under existing law, the reports are confidential and may be disclosed only to specified persons, including, among others, an investigator from an adult protective services agency and persons who are trained and qualified to serve on multidisciplinary personnel teams who disclose to one another information and records that are relevant to the prevention, identification, or treatment of abuse of elderly or dependent persons. This bill would also exempt from that confidentiality requirement, employees of a county's adult protective services agency or a county's child welfare agency who disclose information with each other for the purpose of multidisciplinary teamwork in the prevention, intervention, management, or treatment of the abuse or neglect of a child or abuse or neglect of an elder or dependent adult. (3) Under existing law, the Office of Child Abuse Prevention is established in the State Department of Social Services. The office is authorized to allocate funding for child abuse treatment and prevention projects, including multidisciplinary services. Existing law also authorizes a county to establish a child abuse multidisciplinary personnel team within that county to allow provider agencies to share confidential information in order for provider agencies to investigate reports of suspected child abuse or neglect. Existing law defines "provider agency" for these purposes to mean a governmental or other agency that has as one of its purposes the prevention, identification, management, or treatment of child abuse or neglect, and specifies the provider agencies that may share information, including entities or service agencies that provide social services, children's services, and mental health services. Under this bill, "provider agency" would also include a county's adult protective services agency, and would authorize the adult protective services agency to share information when engaged in multidisciplinary teamwork for the prevention, identification, management, or treatment of the abuse or neglect of a child. Under existing law, the terms "multidisciplinary personnel" and "child abuse multidisciplinary personnel team" mean a team of a specified number of persons trained in the prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect cases and who are qualified to provide a broad range of services related to child abuse. Under existing law, those multidisciplinary personnel teams may include, among other persons, psychiatrists, psychologists, police officers, and social workers. This bill would add adult protective services personnel to the list of persons who may be included in those multidisciplinary personnel teams.