235E.1 - DEFINITIONS.



        235E.1  DEFINITIONS.
         As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
         1.  "Caretaker" means a person who is a staff member of a
      facility or program who provides care, protection, or services to a
      dependent adult voluntarily, by contract, through employment, or by
      order of the court.
         2.  "Court" means the district court.
         3.  "Department" means the department of inspections and
      appeals.
         4.  "Dependent adult" means a person eighteen years of age or
      older whose ability to perform the normal activities of daily living
      or to provide for the person's own care or protection is impaired,
      either temporarily or permanently.
         5. a.  "Dependent adult abuse" means:
         (1)  Any of the following as a result of the willful misconduct or
      gross negligence or reckless acts or omissions of a caretaker, taking
      into account the totality of the circumstances:
         (a)  A physical injury to, or injury which is at a variance with
      the history given of the injury, or unreasonable confinement,
      unreasonable punishment, or assault of a dependent adult which
      involves a breach of skill, care, and learning ordinarily exercised
      by a caretaker in similar circumstances.  "Assault of a dependent
      adult" means the commission of any act which is generally intended
      to cause pain or injury to a dependent adult, or which is generally
      intended to result in physical contact which would be considered by a
      reasonable person to be insulting or offensive or any act which is
      intended to place another in fear of immediate physical contact which
      will be painful, injurious, insulting, or offensive, coupled with the
      apparent ability to execute the act.
         (b)  The commission of a sexual offense under chapter 709 or
      section 726.2 with or against a dependent adult.
         (c)  Exploitation of a dependent adult.  "Exploitation" means
      a caretaker who knowingly obtains, uses, endeavors to obtain to use,
      or who misappropriates, a dependent adult's funds, assets,
      medications, or property with the intent to temporarily or
      permanently deprive a dependent adult of the use, benefit, or
      possession of the funds, assets, medication, or property for the
      benefit of someone other than the dependent adult.
         (d)  Neglect of a dependent adult.  "Neglect of a dependent
      adult" means the deprivation of the minimum food, shelter,
      clothing, supervision, physical or mental health care, or other care
      necessary to maintain a dependent adult's life or physical or mental
      health.
         (2)  Sexual exploitation of a dependent adult by a caretaker
      whether within a facility or program or at a location outside of a
      facility or program.  "Sexual exploitation" means any consensual
      or nonconsensual sexual conduct with a dependent adult which includes
      but is not limited to kissing; touching of the clothed or unclothed
      breast, groin, buttock, anus, pubes, or genitals; or a sex act, as
      defined in section 702.17.  "Sexual exploitation" includes the
      transmission, display, taking of electronic images of the unclothed
      breast, groin, buttock, anus, pubes, or genitals of a dependent adult
      by a caretaker for a purpose not related to treatment or diagnosis or
      as part of an ongoing investigation.  Sexual exploitation does not
      include touching which is part of a necessary examination, treatment,
      or care by a caretaker acting within the scope of the practice or
      employment of the caretaker; the exchange of a brief touch or hug
      between the dependent adult and a caretaker for the purpose of
      reassurance, comfort, or casual friendship; or touching between
      spouses or domestic partners in an intimate relationship.
         b.  "Dependent adult abuse" does not include any of the
      following:
         (1)  Circumstances in which the dependent adult declines medical
      treatment if the dependent adult holds a belief or is an adherent of
      a religion whose tenets and practices call for reliance on spiritual
      means in place of reliance on medical treatment.
         (2)  Circumstances in which the dependent adult's caretaker,
      acting in accordance with the dependent adult's stated or implied
      consent, declines medical treatment or care.
         (3)  The withholding or withdrawing of health care from a
      dependent adult who is terminally ill in the opinion of a licensed
      physician, when the withholding or withdrawing of health care is done
      at the request of the dependent adult or at the request of the
      dependent adult's next of kin, attorney in fact, or guardian pursuant
      to the applicable procedures under chapter 125, 144A, 144B, 222, 229,
      or 633.
         6.  "Facility" means a health care facility as defined in
      section 135C.1 or a hospital as defined in section 135B.1.
         7.  "Intimate relationship" means a significant romantic
      involvement between two persons that need not include sexual
      involvement, but does not include a casual social relationship or
      association in a business or professional capacity.  In determining
      whether persons are in an intimate relationship, the court may
      consider the following nonexclusive list of factors:
         a.  The duration of the relationship.
         b.  The frequency of interaction.
         c.  Whether the relationship has been terminated.
         d.  The nature of the relationship, characterized by either
      person's expectation of sexual or romantic involvement.
         8.  "Person" means person as defined in section 4.1.
         9.  "Program" means an elder group home as defined in section
      231B.1, an assisted living program certified under section 231C.3, or
      an adult day services program as defined in section 231D.1.
         10.  "Recklessly" means that a person acts or fails to act
      with respect to a material element of a public offense, when the
      person is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and
      unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result
      from the act or omission.  The risk must be of such a nature and
      degree that disregard of the risk constitutes a gross deviation from
      the standard conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the
      situation.
         11.  "Support services" includes but is not limited to
      community-based services including area agency on aging assistance,
      mental health services, fiscal management, home health services,
      housing-related services, counseling services, transportation
      services, adult day services, respite services, legal services, and
      advocacy services.  
         Section History: Recent Form
         2008 Acts, ch 1093, §11
         Referred to in § 231C.10, 235B.5, 235B.6, 235E.2