Section 15.23. Receiving reports; general agency responsibility

(a) Twenty-four hour capability. The agency shall be capable of receiving reports of older adults in need of protective services 24-hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week-including holidays. This capability may include the use of a local emergency response system or a crisis intervention agency.

(b) Accessibility of professional staff. Regardless of the arrangements made by the agency to receive reports outside the normal business hours of the agency, the agency shall provide 24-hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week—including holidays-accessibility to a protective services caseworker by a person receiving reports so that referrals required under § 15.26(b) (relating to screening and referral of reports received) may be made for immediate attention. If this accessibility is provided by means of telephone, telephone paging device or other alternatives to direct physical presence, the protective services caseworker shall be capable of returning the call within 30 minutes.

(c) Toll-free public telephone access. To facilitate reporting of older adults in need of protective services, the agency shall provide toll-free telephone access to persons residing in the planning and service area served by the agency. If possible, the agency shall utilize the same telephone number everywhere in the planning and service area at all times. This number shall be extensively publicized throughout the planning and service area with special emphasis on older adults and persons likely to be in contact with victims or perpetrators of abuse, neglect, exploitation and abandonment.

(d) Reports from outside the planning and service area. The agency shall receive all reports made regardless of their place of origin or the location in this Commonwealth of the older adult in need of protective services. If the older adult who is the subject of a report does not reside in the planning and service area of the agency or, at that time, is not in the planning and service area, the agency shall notify the agency which provides protective services in the planning and service area where the older adult is located and relay to that agency the information received in the report.

The provisions of this § 15.23 amended May 17, 2002, effective May 18, 2002, 32 Pa.B. 2412. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (228899) to (228900).

Notation

Cross References

This section cited in 6 Pa. Code § 15.2 (relating to definitions); 6 Pa. Code § 15.26 (relating to screening and referral of reports received); 6 Pa. Code § 15.41 (relating to reports required to be investigated); 6 Pa. Code § 15.44 (relating to resolution of substantiated reports); 6 Pa. Code § 15.105 (relating to limited access to records and disclosure of information); and 6 Pa. Code § 15.112 (relating to uses of funding authorized by the act); 55 Pa. Code § 2600.15 (relating to abuse reporting covered by law); and 55 Pa. Code § 2800.15 (relating to abuse reporting covered by law).