SECTIONS 15700 - California Statutes

WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE

SECTION 15700

15700. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) Elder and dependent adults may be subjected to abuse, neglect,
or abandonment, and that this state has a responsibility to protect
those persons.
(2) Most elder and dependent adults who are at greatest risk of
abuse, neglect, or abandonment by their families or caretakers,
suffer physical impairments and other poor health that place them in
a dependent and vulnerable position.
(3) A significant number of these persons have developmental
disabilities and that mental and verbal limitations often leave them
vulnerable to abuse and incapable of asking for help and protection.
(4) In cases of severe elder and dependent adult abuse or neglect,
endangered adults are often placed in situations that pose an
immediate risk of serious injury or death.
(5) In cases of severe elder and dependent adult abuse or neglect,
endangered adults are frequently deprived of their personal autonomy
and dignity by their abusers, thus preventing them from acting on
their own needs or desires to free themselves from serious, and even
life-threatening, abuse or neglect.
(6) Due to limited resources, court delays, and limitations of
existing law, authorities are often unable to intervene in time to
prevent victims of abuse and neglect from being seriously injured or
killed.
(7) These limitations have left endangered adults, or elder and
dependent adults subject to avoidable pain, suffering, and death, and
has resulted in the expenditure of public funds of the treatment of
major injuries and health conditions that could have been avoided
with proper and timely intervention.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this chapter,
to enhance the protection of elderly persons and dependent adults by
providing a mechanism for temporary emergency protective custody of
elderly or dependent adults who are suspected victims of abuse or
neglect, and who are found to be in a situation that poses an
immediate risk of serious injury or death, and when no other means
are available to mitigate the risk to the elderly or dependent adult.