Abuse, Neglect And Exploitation Policy

Abuse: the neglect or willful infliction of injury, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, or cruel punishment with resulting physical or emotional harms or pain to an elderly or disabled person by the person’s caretaker, family member, or other individual who has an ongoing relationship with the person. Sexual abuse of an elderly or disabled person, including any involuntary or nonconsensual sexual conduct that would constitute an offense under Section 21.08, Penal Code (indecent exposure) or Chapter 22, Penal Code (assaultive offenses), committed by the person’s caretaker, family member, or other individual who has ongoing relationship with the person.

Neglect: failure to provide one’s self the good or services, including medical services, which are necessary to avoid physical or emotional harm or pain or the failure of a caretaker to provide such goods or services.

Exploitation: the illegal or improper act or process of a caretaker, family member or other individual who has ongoing relationship with the elderly or disabled person using the resources of an elderly or disabled for monetary or personal benefit, profit, or gain without the informed consent of the elderly or disabled person.

Child Abuse: includes the following acts or omissions by a person:A. mental or emotional injury to a child that results in an observable and material impairment in the child’s growth, development, or psychological functioning;B. causing or permitting the child to be in a situation in which the child sustains a mental or emotional injury that results in an observable and material impairment in the child’s growth, development, or psychological functioning;C. physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child, or the genuine threat of substantial harm from physical injury to the child. including an injury that is at variance with the history or explanation given and excluding an accident or reasonable discipline by a parent. guardian, or managing or possessory conservator that does not expose the child to a substantial risk of harm;D. failure to make a reasonable effort to prevent an action by another person that results in substantial harm to the child;E. sexual conduct harmful to the child’s mental, emotional, or physical welfare;F. failure to make a reasonable effort to prevent sexual conduct harmful to a child;G. compelling or encouraging the child to engage in sexual conduct as defined by Section 43.01, Penal Code;H. causing, permitting, encouraging, engaging in, or allowing the photographing, filming, or depicting of the child if the person knew or should have known that the resulting photograph, film, or depiction of the child is obscene as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code, or pornographic;I. the current use by a person of a controlled substance as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code, in a manner or to the extent that the use results in physical, mental, or emotional injury to a child; orJ. causing, expressly permitting, or encouraging a child to use a controlled substance as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code.

Child Neglect:A. the leaving of a child in a situation where the child would be exposed to a substantial risk of physical or mental harm, without arranging for necessary care for the child, and the demonstration of an intent not to return by a parent, guardian, or managing or possessor conservator of the child; the following acts or omissions by a person:B. placing a child in or failing to remove a child from a situation that a reasonable person would realize requires judgement or actions beyond the child’s level of maturity, physical condition, or mental abilities and that results in bodily injury or a substantial risk of immediate harm to the child; C. failing to seek, obtain, or follow through with medical care for a child, with the failure resulting in or presenting a substantial risk of death, disfigurement, or bodily injury or with the failure resulting in an observable and material impairment to the growth, development, or functioning of the child;D. the failure to provide a child with food, clothing, or shelter necessary to sustain the life or health of the child, excluding failure caused primarily by financial inability unless relief services had been offered and refused; orE. placing a child in or failing to remove the child from a situation in which the child would be exposed to a substantial risk of sexual conduct harmful to the child; orF. the failure by the person responsible for a child’s care, custody, or welfare to permit the child to return to the child’s home without aranging for the necessary care for the child after the child has been absent form the home for any reason, including having been in residential placement or having run away.