Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 29, 1992 TAG: 9203020215
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PROTECT VIRGINIA'S VULNERABLE ADULTS
MOST nursing homes and their employees and others who care for elderly or incapacitated adults are conscientious care-givers.Sad to say, though, abuse of helpless adults still happens in Virginia.
And, incredibly, abusers may slip through a legal loophole and get away with it.
Recently, there've been at least four such cases in this area alone. These include one last year in which a 27-year-old woman, mentally retarded and paralyzed from the waist down, was found cold and naked, except for a urine-soaked blanket over her lap, in an unlicensed home for adults in Roanoke.
Lesions covered her body. Her feet were swollen and bleeding.
That case helped focus attention on the glaring weakness of current state law, which does not impose criminal sanctions for abuse and neglect of adults.
Although social-service workers may intervene to rescue a victim, punitive action can't be taken against the perpetrators of such cruelty to ensure that it won't be repeated with other victims. And usually an abused victim has to die before any charges whatsoever can be brought.
This is unacceptable. The General Assembly must close the legal loophole - for the protection of vulnerable adults and the peace of mind of their relatives who must trust strangers to properly care for them.
The Commission on Virginians with Disabilities, headed by Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, has urged enactment of a bill that would make abuse or willful neglect of the elderly and disabled adults a crime, subject to up to a year in prison.
The legislation should go a long way in deterring mistreatment of helpless adults. Most certainly, it gives authorities the means to step in and stop horrid treatment before it leads to death.
Our society shouldn't tolerate the abuse of its most vulnerable members - children or dependent adults.