HARRISBURG — For the second year in a row, the older adult protective services division of the Allegheny County Area Agency on Aging received a designation of “non-compliant” with standards set by the state Department of Aging, the department’s top official said Thursday.
Aging Secretary Jason Kavulich, speaking to a reporter after testifying at a budget hearing, said the division within the Allegheny County agency is one of seven to receive such a designation among 52 aging agencies statewide in a recent review. Protective services divisions are responsible for looking into reports of abuse, neglect, abandonment and exploitation of seniors.
A list shared with the Post-Gazette from last year — dated April 7, 2023 — showed the division as “non-compliant” for “monitoring outcome status.” At the time, 12 other divisions across the state received the same designation.
The state department notified the county agency’s administrator, Shannah Tharp-Gilliam, in a letter dated Aug. 16 that a quality-assurance monitoring “determined that your agency has quality issues.”
It said, “Your agency’s protective services program performance is unsatisfactory and non-compliant with the law, regulations and department policy. There were sixteen deficiencies identified and older adults were found to be left at risk.”
The department directed the Allegheny County agency to create a corrective action plan and carry out training.
Spokespersons for the Allegheny County agency were not immediately available to answer written questions Thursday afternoon.
Questions about protecting senior citizens from threats were one focus Thursday as Mr. Kavulich testified before the House Appropriations Committee about his agency’s portion of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed 2024-25 budget.
Mr. Shapiro’s budget proposal, among other things, calls for allocating $11.7 million to programs targeted to assist older Pennsylvanians and their caregivers, as well as $1.9 million for creation of a division at the Department of Aging focused on Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.
The Associated Press reported in late December that Pennsylvania had logged a steep increase in deaths of older adults following an abuse or neglect complaint in recent years, from 120 reported in 2017 to almost 1,400 in 2022. The increase came as agencies nationwide struggled to keep caseworkers on staff through the pandemic and to manage caseloads.
At the time, the state Department of Aging said it had no data to suggest that a lack of caseworkers contributed to the increase in deaths.
The agency suggested the data could be misleading, since the deaths may have had nothing to do with the original abuse or neglect complaint.
On Thursday, state Rep. John Lawrence, R-Chester, ripped the agency responses in that article. He asked why the department could not say exactly how many deaths were linked to abuse or neglect reports.
“Somebody has made a call. Grandma is being abused. My neighbor is being neglected. These folks end up dead — after someone reported them as being vulnerable,” Mr. Lawrence said. “Why isn’t the data collected to link those two things?”
Mr. Kavulich told Mr. Lawrence the data indicating the surge in deaths was incomplete and “doesn’t answer the questions that you want answered.” Among other things, Mr. Kavulich said, it did not say what kind of complaint was filed before the person died.
The department, he said, is working to improve data collection and recently created a fatality review process. Mr. Lawrence said the department’s follow-up was unacceptable.
Mr. Kavulich spoke about the Shapiro administration’s new 10-year master plan for older Pennsylvanians — a 30-day public comment period on the plan began Tuesday — and he cited stats that proved the need for it.
The state’s population, he said, is reaching the highest age level in history. Soon, he said, 1 in 3 residents will be over the age of 60. “This population is growing 20 times faster than any other demographic.”
The 52 agencies on aging across the state, Mr. Kavulich said, need more resources. They often manage transportation, home-delivered meals, senior centers, personal emergency response help and many other needs of older residents, he said.
Ford Turner: fturner@post-gazette.com
First Published: February 23, 2024, 12:12 a.m.
Updated: February 23, 2024, 6:33 p.m.
