Commonwealth of Pennsylvania policy declares that older adults who lack the capacity to protect themselves and are at imminent risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or abandonment shall have access to and be provided with services necessary to protect their health, safety, and welfare.  In Blair County, The Commonwealth designates this responsibility to Blair Senior Services, Incorporated.  It is not the purpose of this Act to place restrictions upon the personal liberty of incapacitated older adults, but this Act shall be liberally construed to assure the availability of protective services to all older adults in need of them.  Such services shall safeguard the rights of the incapacitated older adult while protecting them from abuse, exploitation, neglect, and/or abandonment.  It is the intent of Protective Services to provide for the detection, reduction and correction or elimination of the abuse, neglect, exploitation, and abandonment and to establish a care plan of protective services for older adults in need of them.

Intake Procedure

Calls regarding Protective Services will be taken 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please call Blair Senior Services, Inc. at 814-946-1235 or 1-800-245-3282 if calling Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and ask for Protective Services Intake. After hours calls should be placed to 814-949-4850. Please leave a message and your call will be returned as quickly as possible.

Eligibility Criteria for Protective Services

Consumers must meet the following four criteria to be eligible for Protective Services:

• Over age 60.
• Incapacitated - unable to perform or obtain services necessary to maintain mental or physical health.
• Be at imminent risk.
• Have no responsible caregiver. Caregiver is defined as an individual or an institution that has assumed responsibility for the provision of care needed to maintain physical or mental health of an older adult.

Types of Problems that Require Protective Services Intervention

• Abuse: is the occurrence of one or more of the following acts:
  • The infliction of injury, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, or punishment with resulting physical harm, pain, or mental anguish
  • The willful deprivation by a caretaker of goods or services which are necessary to maintain physical or mental health
  • Sexual harassment, rape, or abuse as defined in the Protection from Abuse Act (10-7-1976)
• Neglect (by self or caregiver): the failure to provide for oneself, or the failure of a caretaker to provide goods or services essential to avoid a clear and serious threat to physical or mental health
• Financial Exploitation: an act or course of conduct against an older adult’s resources that results in profit or gain for the perpetrator.  Exploitation is done without the older adult’s consent, by misrepresentation, or by threats toward the older person.
• Abandonment: the desertion of an older adult by a caretaker