2006 Utah Code - 62A-3-301 — Definitions.

     62A-3-301.   Definitions.
     As used in this part:
     (1) "Abandonment" means any knowing or intentional action or inaction, including desertion, by a person or entity acting as a caretaker for a vulnerable adult that leaves the vulnerable adult without the means or ability to obtain necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical or other health care.
     (2) "Abuse" means:
     (a) attempting to cause harm, intentionally or knowingly causing harm, or intentionally or knowingly placing another in fear of imminent harm;
     (b) unreasonable or inappropriate use of physical restraint, medication, or isolation that causes or is likely to cause harm to a vulnerable adult that is in conflict with a physician's orders or used as an unauthorized substitute for treatment, unless that conduct furthers the health and safety of the adult;
     (c) emotional or psychological abuse;
     (d) sexual offense as described in Title 76, Chapter 5, Offenses Against the Person; or
     (e) deprivation of life sustaining treatment, except:
     (i) as provided in Title 75, Chapter 2, Part 11, Personal Choice and Living Will Act; or
     (ii) when informed consent, as defined in Section 76-5-111, has been obtained.
     (3) "Adult" means a person who is 18 years of age or older.
     (4) "Adult protection case file" means documents and information contained in the file maintained by Adult Protective Services on a particular case, including any report or other notification received by the division or Adult Protective Services.
     (5) "Adult Protective Services" means the unit within the division responsible to investigate abuse, neglect, and exploitation of vulnerable adults and provide appropriate protective services.
     (6) "Caretaker" means any person, entity, corporation, or public institution that assumes the responsibility to provide a vulnerable adult with care, food, shelter, clothing, supervision, medical or other health care, or other necessities. "Caretaker" includes a relative by blood or marriage, a household member, a person who is employed or who provides volunteer work, or a person who contracts or is under court order to provide care.
     (7) "Counsel" means an attorney licensed to practice law in this state.
     (8) "Elder abuse" means abuse, neglect, or exploitation of an elder adult.
     (9) "Elder adult" means a person 65 years of age or older.
     (10) "Emergency" means a circumstance in which a vulnerable adult is at an immediate risk of death or serious physical injury or is at risk of immediate, serious harm. Risk of immediate, serious harm includes exploitation that results in the inability of a vulnerable adult to provide funds for immediate needs, including food, shelter, and necessary medical care.
     (11) "Emotional or psychological abuse" means intentional or knowing verbal or nonverbal conduct directed at a vulnerable adult including ridiculing, intimidating, yelling, swearing, threatening, isolating, coercing, harassing, or other forms of intimidating behavior that results or could result in the vulnerable adult suffering mental anguish or emotional distress, including fear, humiliation, degradation, agitation, confusion, or isolation.
     (12) "Exploitation" means the offense described in Subsection 76-5-111(4).
     (13) "Harm" means pain, mental anguish, emotional distress, hurt, physical or psychological damage, physical injury, serious physical injury, suffering, or distress inflicted

knowingly or intentionally.
     (14) "Intimidation" means communication through verbal or nonverbal conduct which threatens deprivation of money, food, clothing, medicine, shelter, social interaction, supervision, health care, or companionship, or which threatens isolation or abuse.
     (15) (a) "Isolation" means knowingly or intentionally preventing a vulnerable adult from having contact with another person by:
     (i) preventing the vulnerable adult from receiving visitors, mail, or telephone calls, contrary to the express wishes of the vulnerable adult, including communicating to a visitor that the vulnerable adult is not present or does not want to meet with or talk to the visitor, knowing that communication to be false;
     (ii) physically restraining the vulnerable adult in order to prevent the vulnerable adult from meeting with a visitor; or
     (iii) making false or misleading statements to the vulnerable adult in order to induce the vulnerable adult to refuse to receive communication from visitors or other family members.
     (b) The term "isolation" does not include an act intended to protect the physical or mental welfare of the vulnerable adult or an act performed pursuant to the treatment plan or instructions of a physician or other professional advisor of the vulnerable adult.
     (16) "Lacks capacity to consent" has the meaning as provided in Section 76-5-111.
     (17) "Neglect" means:
     (a) (i) failure of a caretaker to provide nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, personal care, or dental, medical, or other health care; or
     (ii) failure to provide protection from health and safety hazards or maltreatment;
     (b) failure of a caretaker to provide care to a vulnerable adult in a timely manner and with the degree of care that a reasonable person in a like position would exercise;
     (c) a pattern of conduct by a caretaker, without the vulnerable adult's informed consent, resulting in deprivation of food, water, medication, health care, shelter, cooling, heating, or other services necessary to maintain the vulnerable adult's well being;
     (d) knowing or intentional failure by a caretaker to carry out a prescribed treatment plan that causes or is likely to cause harm to the vulnerable adult;
     (e) self-neglect by the vulnerable adult; or
     (f) abandonment by a caretaker.
     (18) "Physical injury" includes damage to any bodily tissue caused by nontherapeutic conduct, to the extent that the tissue must undergo a healing process in order to be restored to a sound and healthy condition, or damage to any bodily tissue to the extent that the tissue cannot be restored to a sound and healthy condition. "Physical injury" includes skin bruising, a dislocation, physical pain, illness, impairment of physical function, a pressure sore, bleeding, malnutrition, dehydration, a burn, a bone fracture, a subdural hematoma, soft tissue swelling, injury to any internal organ, or any other physical condition that imperils the health or welfare of a vulnerable adult and is not a serious physical injury as defined in this section.
     (19) "Protected person" means a vulnerable adult for whom the court has ordered protective services, including a vulnerable adult for whom emergency protective services have been established under the provisions of this chapter.
     (20) "Protective services" means any services provided by Adult Protective Services to a vulnerable adult, either with the consent of the vulnerable adult or the vulnerable adult's guardian or conservator, or by court order, if that adult has been abused, neglected, exploited, or is in a

state of self-neglect; protective services may include:
     (a) an intake system for receiving and screening reports;
     (b) investigation of referrals in accordance with statutory and policy guidelines;
     (c) protective needs assessment;
     (d) coordination and referral to community resources for services; or
     (e) short-term, limited services including emergency shelter or respite when family or other community resources are not available to provide protection.
     (21) "Self-neglect" means the failure of a vulnerable adult to provide food, water, medication, health care, shelter, cooling, heating, safety, or other services necessary to maintain the vulnerable adult's well being when that failure is the result of the adult's mental or physical impairment. Choice of lifestyle or living arrangements may not, by themselves, be evidence of self-neglect.
     (22) "Serious physical injury" has the meaning as provided in Section 76-5-111.
     (23) "Substantiated" or "substantiation" means a finding, based upon a preponderance of the evidence, that there is a reasonable basis to conclude that abuse, neglect, or exploitation occurred, regardless of whether there is an identified perpetrator or current need for protective services. If more than one allegation is made or identified during the course of the investigation, any allegation determined to meet the criteria for substantiation requires a case finding of "substantiated."
     (24) "Undue influence" occurs when a person uses the person's role, relationship, or power to exploit, or knowingly assist or cause another to exploit, the trust, dependency, or fear of a vulnerable adult, or uses the person's role, relationship, or power to gain control deceptively over the decision making of the vulnerable adult.
     (25) "Unsubstantiated" means a finding, based upon a preponderance of the evidence, that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that abuse, neglect, or exploitation occurred.
     (26) "Vulnerable adult" means an elder adult, or an adult who has a mental or physical impairment which substantially affects that person's ability to:
     (a) provide personal protection;
     (b) provide necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, or mental or other health care;
     (c) obtain services necessary for health, safety, or welfare;
     (d) carry out the activities of daily living;
     (e) manage the adult's own resources; or
     (f) comprehend the nature and consequences of remaining in a situation of abuse, neglect, or exploitation.

Amended by Chapter 131, 2003 General Session