Utah Code § 26B-6-201 Definitions.
26B-6-201. Definitions.
As used in this part:
(1) "Abandonment" means a knowing or intentional action or inaction, including desertion, by a person acting as a caretaker for a vulnerable adult that leaves the vulnerable adult without the means or ability to obtain necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical or other health care.
(2) "Abuse" means:
(a) knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly:
(i) attempting to cause harm;
(ii) causing harm;
(iii) placing another in fear of imminent harm;
(iv) causing physical injury by acts or omissions; or
(v) engaging in a pattern of neglect;
(b) unreasonable or inappropriate use of physical restraint, medication, or isolation that, unless the physical restraint, medication, or isolation furthers the health and safety of the vulnerable adult:
(i) causes or is likely to cause harm to a vulnerable adult;
(ii) conflicts with a physician's orders; or
(iii) is used as an unauthorized substitute for treatment;
(c) emotional or psychological abuse;
(d) a sexual offense as described in Title 76, Chapter 5, Offenses Against the Individual; or
(e) deprivation of life sustaining treatment, or medical or mental health treatment, except:
(i) as provided in Title 75A, Chapter 3, Health Care Decisions; or
(ii) when informed consent has been obtained.
(3) "Adult" means an individual who is 18 years old or older.
(4) "Adult protection case file" means a record, stored in any format, contained in a case file maintained by Adult Protective Services.
(5) "Adult Protective Services" means the unit within the division responsible to investigate abuse, neglect, and exploitation of vulnerable adults and provide appropriate protective services.
(6) "Capacity" means that an individual has sufficient understanding and memory to comprehend the individual's situation and the nature, purpose, and consequence of an act or transaction into which the individual enters or proposes to enter.
(7) "Capacity to consent" means the ability of an individual to understand and communicate regarding the nature and consequences of decisions relating to the individual, and relating to the individual's property and lifestyle, including a decision to accept or refuse services.
(8) "Caretaker" means a person or public institution that is entrusted with or assumes the responsibility to provide a vulnerable adult with care, food, shelter, clothing, supervision, medical or other health care, resource management, or other necessities for pecuniary gain, by contract, or as a result of friendship, or who is otherwise in a position of trust and confidence with a vulnerable adult, including a relative, a household member, an attorney-in-fact, a neighbor, a person who is employed or who provides volunteer work, a court-appointed or voluntary guardian, or a person who contracts or is under court order to provide care.
(9) "Counsel" means an attorney licensed to practice law in this state.
(10) "Database" means the statewide database maintained by the division under Section 26B-6-210.
(11) "Decision-making ability" means an individual's capacity to receive, process, and understand information, to comprehend the individual's circumstances, and to understand the likely consequences of the individual's decisions.
(12)
(a) "Dependent adult" means an individual 18 years old or older, who has a physical or mental impairment that restricts the individual's ability to carry out normal activities or to protect the individual's rights.
(b) "Dependent adult" includes an individual who has physical or developmental disabilities or whose physical or mental capacity has substantially diminished because of age.
(13) "Elder abuse" means abuse, neglect, or exploitation of an elder adult.
(14) "Elder adult" means an individual 65 years old or older.
(15) "Emergency" means a circumstance in which a vulnerable adult is at an immediate risk of death, serious physical injury, or serious physical, emotional, or financial harm.
(16) "Emergency protective services" means measures taken by Adult Protective Services under time-limited, court-ordered authority for the purpose of remediating an emergency.
(17)
(a) "Emotional or psychological abuse" means knowing or intentional verbal or nonverbal conduct directed at a vulnerable adult that would cause a reasonable individual to suffer mental anguish, emotional distress, fear, humiliation, degradation, agitation, or confusion.
(b) "Emotional or psychological abuse" includes intimidating, threatening, isolating, coercing, or harassing.
(c) "Emotional or psychological abuse" does not include verbal or non-verbal conduct by a vulnerable adult who lacks the capacity to intentionally or knowingly:
(i) engage in the conduct; or
(ii) cause mental anguish, emotional distress, fear, humiliation, degradation, agitation, or confusion.
(18) "Endangerment" means an offense described in Section 76-5-112 or 76-5-112.5.
(19) "Exploitation" means an offense described in Section 76-5-111.3, 76-5-111.4, or 76-5b-202.
(20) "Harm" means pain, mental anguish, emotional distress, hurt, physical or psychological damage, physical injury, serious physical injury, suffering, or distress inflicted knowingly or, intentionally.
(21) "Inconclusive" means a finding by the division that there is not a reasonable basis to conclude that abuse, neglect, or exploitation occurred.
(22) "Informed consent" means:
(a) a written expression by the individual, or authorized by the individual, that:
(i) is given while the individual is of sound mind;
(ii) is witnessed by at least two individuals who do not benefit from the withdrawal of services; and
(iii) states that:
(A) the individual fully understands the potential risks and benefits of the withdrawal of food, water, medication, medical services, shelter, cooling, heating, or other services necessary to maintain minimum physical or mental health; and
(B) the individual desires that the services be withdrawn; or
(b) consent to withdraw food, water, medication, medical services, shelter, cooling, heating, or other services necessary to maintain minimum physical or mental health, as permitted by court order.
(23) "Intimidation" means communication through verbal or nonverbal conduct which threatens deprivation of money, food, clothing, medicine, shelter, social interaction, supervision, health care, or companionship, or which threatens isolation or abuse.
(24)
(a) "Isolation" means knowingly or intentionally preventing a vulnerable adult from having contact with another person, unless the restriction of personal rights is authorized by court order, by:
(i) preventing the vulnerable adult from communicating, visiting, interacting, or initiating interaction with others, including receiving or inviting visitors, mail, or telephone calls, contrary to the expressed wishes of the vulnerable adult, or communicating to a visitor that the vulnerable adult is not present or does not want to meet with or talk to the visitor, knowing that communication to be false;
(ii) physically restraining the vulnerable adult in order to prevent the vulnerable adult from meeting with a visitor; or
(iii) making false or misleading statements to the vulnerable adult in order to induce the vulnerable adult to refuse to receive communication from visitors or other family members.
(b) "Isolation" does not include an act:
(i) intended in good faith to protect the physical or mental welfare of the vulnerable adult; or
(ii) performed pursuant to the treatment plan or instructions of a physician or other professional advisor of the vulnerable adult.
(25) "Lacks capacity to consent" means the same as that term is defined in Section 76-5-111.4.
(26) "Neglect" means:
(a)
(i) failure of a caretaker to provide nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, personal care, or dental or other health care; or
(ii) failure of a caretaker to provide protection from health and safety hazards or maltreatment;
(b) failure of a caretaker to provide care to a vulnerable adult in a timely manner and with the degree of care that a reasonable person in a like position would exercise;
(c) a pattern of conduct by a caretaker, without the vulnerable adult's informed consent, resulting in deprivation of food, water, medication, health care, shelter, cooling, heating, or other services necessary to maintain the vulnerable adult's well being;
(d) intentional failure by a caretaker to carry out a prescribed treatment plan that results or could result in physical injury or physical harm to the vulnerable adult; or
(e) abandonment by a caretaker.
(27) "Physical injury" includes the damage and conditions described in Section 76-5-111.
(28) "Position of trust and confidence" means the position of a person who:
(a) is a parent, spouse, adult child, or other relative of a vulnerable adult;
(b) is a joint tenant or tenant in common with a vulnerable adult;
(c) has a legal or fiduciary relationship with a vulnerable adult, including a court-appointed or voluntary guardian, trustee, attorney, attorney-in-fact, or conservator;
(d) is a caretaker of a vulnerable adult; or
(e) is a person whom a vulnerable adult has come to trust.
(29) "Protected person" means a vulnerable adult for whom the court has ordered protective services.
(30) "Protective services" means services to protect a vulnerable adult from abuse, neglect, or exploitation.
(31) "Self-neglect" means the failure of a vulnerable adult to provide or obtain food, water, medication, health care, shelter, cooling, heating, safety, or other services necessary to maintain the vulnerable adult's well being when that failure is the result of the adult's mental or physical impairment. Choice of lifestyle or living arrangements may not, by themselves, be evidence of self-neglect.
(32) "Serious physical injury" is as defined in Section 76-5-111.
(33) "Supported" means a finding by the division that there is a reasonable basis to conclude that abuse, neglect, or exploitation occurred.
(34) "Undue influence" occurs when a person:
(a) uses influence to take advantage of a vulnerable adult's mental or physical impairment; or
(b) uses the person's role, relationship, power, or trust:
(i) to exploit, or knowingly assist or cause another to exploit, the trust, dependency, or fear of a vulnerable adult; or
(ii) to gain control deceptively over the decision making of the vulnerable adult.
(35) "Vulnerable adult" means an elder adult, or a dependent adult who has a mental or physical impairment which substantially affects that person's ability to:
(a) provide personal protection;
(b) provide necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, or medical or other health care;
(c) obtain services necessary for health, safety, or welfare;
(d) carry out the activities of daily living;
(e) manage the adult's own resources; or
(f) comprehend the nature and consequences of remaining in a situation of abuse, neglect, or exploitation.
(36) "Without merit" means a finding that abuse, neglect, or exploitation did not occur.
Amended by Chapter 277, 2025 General Session
Amended by Chapter 507, 2025 General Session