November 30, 2022

Comprehensive recommendations provided by the Abuse/Neglect Registry Taskforce for statutory and operational changes required to close gaps in Pennsylvania’s protective services systems for adults with disabilities and and older adults. 

"The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania strives to continually improve systems to protect vulnerable populations from abuse and neglect. To this end, Governor Wolf issued Executive Order 2019-05 Protection of Vulnerable Populations, which outlines a myriad of activities aimed at strengthening approaches. Additionally, in February 2022, the Wolf Administration created the Abuse/Neglect Registry Taskforce to address a gap in protection created by having no systematic method for tracking perpetrators of abuse or neglect of adults with disabilities in the Commonwealth. Agencies that provide services to adults with disabilities currently do not have access to information related to substantiated abuse or neglect cases in which a prospective employee was the perpetrator. Adults with disabilities, including older Pennsylvanians, may experience avoidable harm when perpetrators of abuse and neglect are able to move from job to job without detection."

Download the recommendations.