Oklahoma Statutes
Title 43A. Mental Health
§43A-10-103. Definitions.

A. When used in the Protective Services for Vulnerable Adults Act:

1. "Protective services" means services which are necessary to aid a vulnerable adult in meeting the essential requirements for mental or physical health and safety that the vulnerable adult is unable to provide or obtain without assistance. The term "protective services" includes but is not limited to services provided to or obtained for such person in order to prevent or remedy the abuse, neglect, or exploitation of such person;
2. "Services which are necessary to aid an individual to meet essential requirements for mental or physical health and safety" include, but shall not be limited to:
The term shall not include taking the person into physical custody without the consent of the person except as provided for in Sections 10-107 and 10-108 of this title, and the evaluation, monitoring, and provision of protective placements;
3. "Meet essential requirements for mental or physical health and safety" means those actions necessary to provide the health care, food, shelter, clothing, personal hygiene and other care without which physical injury or illness to the vulnerable adult is likely to occur;
4. "Incapacitated person" means:
5. "Vulnerable adult" means an individual who is an incapacitated person or who, because of physical or mental disability, including persons with Alzheimer's disease or other dementias, incapacity, or other disability, is substantially impaired in the ability to provide adequately for the care or custody of himself or herself, or is unable to manage his or her property and financial affairs effectively, or to meet essential requirements for mental or physical health or safety, or to protect himself or herself from abuse, verbal abuse, neglect, or exploitation without assistance from others;
6. "Caretaker" means a person who has:
7. "Department" means the Department of Human Services;
8. "Abuse" means causing or permitting:
9. "Exploitation" or "exploit" means an unjust or improper use of the resources of a vulnerable adult for the profit or advantage, pecuniary or otherwise, of a person other than the vulnerable adult through the use of undue influence, coercion, harassment, duress, deception, false representation or false pretense;
10. "Financial neglect" means repeated instances by a caretaker, or other person, who has assumed the role of financial management, of failure to use the resources available to restore or maintain the health and physical well-being of a vulnerable adult, including, but not limited to:
11. "Neglect" means:
12. "Personal degradation" means a willful act by a caretaker intended to shame, degrade, humiliate or otherwise harm the personal dignity of a vulnerable adult, or where the caretaker knew or reasonably should have known the act would cause shame, degradation, humiliation or harm to the personal dignity of a reasonable person. Personal degradation includes the taking, transmitting, or display of an electronic image of a vulnerable adult by a caretaker, where the caretaker's actions constitute a willful act intended to shame, degrade, humiliate or otherwise harm the personal dignity of the dependent adult, or where the caretaker knew or reasonably should have known the act would cause shame, degradation, humiliation or harm to the personal dignity of a reasonable person. Personal degradation does not include:
13. "Sexual abuse" means:
14. "Indecent exposure" means forcing or requiring a vulnerable adult to:
15. "Self-neglect" means the action or inaction of a vulnerable adult which causes that person to fail to meet the essential requirements for physical or mental health and safety due to the vulnerable adult's lack of awareness, incompetence or incapacity;
16. "Sexual exploitation" includes, but is not limited to, a caretaker's causing, allowing, permitting or encouraging a vulnerable adult to engage in prostitution or in the lewd, obscene, or pornographic photographing, filming or depiction of the vulnerable adult as those acts are defined by state law; and
17. "Verbal abuse" means the use of words, sounds, or other communication including, but not limited to, gestures, actions or behaviors, by a caretaker or other person providing services to a vulnerable adult that are likely to cause a reasonable person to experience humiliation, intimidation, fear, shame or degradation.
B. Nothing in this section shall be construed to mean a vulnerable adult is abused or neglected for the sole reason the vulnerable adult, in good faith, selects and depends upon spiritual means alone through prayer, in accordance with the practices of a recognized religious method of healing, for the treatment or cure of disease or remedial care, or a caretaker or other person responsible, in good faith, is furnishing such vulnerable adult spiritual means alone through prayer, in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious denomination, for the treatment or cure of disease or remedial care in accordance with the practices of or express consent of the vulnerable adult.
Added by Laws 1977, c. 264, § 3, emerg. eff. June 17, 1977. Amended by Laws 1980, c. 238, § 1, eff. Oct. 1, 1980; Laws 1984, c. 256, § 3, eff. Nov. 1, 1984. Renumbered from § 803 of this title by Laws 1986, c. 103, § 103, eff. Nov. 1, 1986. Amended by Laws 1994, c. 244, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1994; Laws 1997, c. 195, § 6, eff. Nov. 1, 1997; Laws 1998, c. 298, § 3, eff. Nov. 1, 1998; Laws 2001, c. 393, § 1, emerg. eff. June 4, 2001; Laws 2003, c. 332, § 2, emerg. eff. May 29, 2003; Laws 2007, c. 68, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2007; Laws 2016, c. 39, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2016; Laws 2019, c. 350, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2019; Laws 2019, c. 475, § 30, eff. Nov. 1, 2019.
NOTE: Laws 1998, c. 219, § 2 repealed by Laws 1999, c. 1, § 45, emerg. eff. Feb. 24, 1999.

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