September 24th, 2009

Reports the Philadelphia Daily News:

The photographs of Michael Ferrara’s face tell much of the story.

Blood pooling under his swollen eyes showed that the 25-year-old had been punched – hard. The marks around his neck were a clear sign of strangulation, his doctor said.

But Michael, who was living in a Delaware County group home for mentally handicapped adults at the time of the February 2008 assault, couldn’t tell police what happened.

Born with a genetic mutation that caused severe brain damage and left him unable to speak or communicate normally, Michael can’t identify his assailant.

“He can’t even tell you who hurt him and what they did and how they did it,” said his mother, Judi. “He’s 25 years old, but he’s like a child.”

As a result, no charges were filed. And without a criminal conviction, whoever attacked Michael – police say most of the evidence pointed to his overnight caregiver – is free to work with similarly disabled adults.

“These people can continually work in the field,” Ferrara said. “They can leave one agency and go to another agency.”

That’s because Pennsylvania is one of only five states in the nation without an adult-protection law that gives county or regional agencies the authority to investigate and record incidents of alleged abuse or neglect of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Children and the elderly are already covered.

In Delaware County, for example, Children and Youth Services (CYS) is the state-mandated agency that investigates child abuse. For senior citizens, there is the County Office of Services for the Aging (COSA).

But people like Michael Ferrara, as well as thousands of mentally handicapped adults between the ages of 18 and 59 who live in private residences, have no such protection in Pennsylvania.

“There are situations going on right now where advocates know there’s someone in an abusive situation, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Stephen Suroviec, executive director of the Arc of Pennsylvania, an advocacy group for people with cognitive, intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Suspicions of child abuse or elder abuse can be reported to CYS or COSA, or similar agencies in other parts of the state, but mentally handicapped adults are often left to fend for themselves.

Find out more at the Daily News.