HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Department of Aging’s oversight of local agencies charged with preventing elder abuse is riddled with weaknesses and deficiencies that could leave vulnerable older adults at further risk of harm, according to a stinging audit released Wednesday by the state’s top fiscal watchdog.
The 80-page audit by Auditor General Tim DeFoor’s office also concluded that the department’s new system for monitoring the quality of abuse and neglect investigations no longer looks at key areas — such as whether an older adult was left at risk of harm — creating a rosier picture of how well caseworkers across the state are performing their critical work.
In all, the department found 10 deficiencies in the way the aging department oversees and monitors the 52 county-based Area Agencies on Aging that provide essential services to older adults — and specifically, how well they conduct investigations into allegations of abuse, neglect, self-neglect, and financial exploitation involving people aged 60 or older.
The auditor general’s findings echo many of the failures Spotlight PA has documented over its two-year-long investigation into Pennsylvania’s older adult protective services system.
The investigation, called Unprotected, found significant and persistent failures in the department’s oversight of county aging agencies, sometimes leading to devastating or catastrophic outcomes.
The auditors made more than three dozen recommendations on how the department can strengthen its oversight of the county agencies and ensure that vulnerable older adults don’t fall through the cracks. To that end, they also urged the legislature to enact changes to Pennsylvania’s older adult protective services law.
“Overall, our audit found weaknesses across [the department’s] monitoring system, follow-up processes, staff training oversight, public transparency, and compliance with statutory requirements,” the audit states. “These weaknesses could collectively increase the likelihood that older adults may remain at risk of harm without detection or intervention.”
The Department of Aging, headed by Secretary Jason Kavulich, disputed the majority of the office’s findings, even going as far as to accuse auditors of not adhering to standards of objectivity and fact-based and unbiased conclusions that govern “professional audits.” The response is more forceful and combative than that of other state agencies that have been scrutinized by the auditor general’s office in years prior.
“The audit report is inaccurate in its understanding, application and representation of the regulations, policies and laws the Department must follow in its mission to protect older adults,” the aging agency wrote in its response.
Kavulich previously told Spotlight PA that while there is room for improvement in how counties keep older adults safe, there is no “crisis” in the system.
Spotlight PA has reported that the number of older adults who die while their abuse and neglect allegations are being investigated has increased more than 70% since 2017. The department has been unable to explain why — or whether poor investigations played a role — in part because it no longer tracks their cause of death.
This story will be updated.