PRINTER'S NO. 487
No. 440 Session of 2007
INTRODUCED BY ORIE, PUNT, REGOLA, BRUBAKER, COSTA, FONTANA,
TARTAGLIONE, C. WILLIAMS, WASHINGTON, STACK, LOGAN,
TOMLINSON, WOZNIAK, MELLOW, GORDNER, RAFFERTY, MUSTO AND
McILHINNEY, MARCH 14, 2007
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY, MARCH 14, 2007
AN ACT
1 Establishing the Pennsylvania Domestic Violence Hotline; and
2 providing for the powers and duties of the Department of
3 Public Welfare.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Short title.
7 This act shall be known and may be cited as the Pennsylvania
8 Domestic Violence Hotline Act.
9 Section 2. Definitions.
10 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
11 have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
12 context clearly indicates otherwise:
13 "Crisis intervention." Assistance to individuals relating to
14 the identification of domestic violence problems and possible
15 solutions, including, but not limited to, the making of plans
16 for the safety of victims of domestic violence in cases of
17 emergency.
1 "Department." The Department of Public Welfare of the
2 Commonwealth.
3 "Hotline." A twenty-four hour, seven-day-per-week toll-free
4 telephone line.
5 "Information resources." Information relating to domestic
6 violence, child abuse, sexual assault, intervention programs for
7 individuals who commit domestic violence and related issues
8 through the criminal justice system.
9 "Referral." The distribution to a victim of domestic
10 violence of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of local
11 shelters, domestic violence programs, social service agencies,
12 legal programs for victims of domestic violence and other groups
13 and organizations that deal with domestic violence in this
14 Commonwealth.
15 Section 3. Pennsylvania Domestic Violence Hotline.
16 (a) Establishment.--The department shall establish a
17 Statewide hotline, to be known as the Pennsylvania Domestic
18 Violence Hotline, which hotline shall be operated by response
19 counselors. The response counselors shall be domestic violence
20 counselors who satisfy qualifications, including, but not
21 limited to, skills in crisis management and problem
22 identification as set forth by department regulation.
23 (b) Confidentiality.--
24 (1) Each telephone call to the Pennsylvania Domestic
25 Violence Hotline shall be confidential. Only response
26 counselors and appropriate employees of the department may
27 have access to the telephone call information.
28 (2) Unless requested to do so by an individual who
29 places a telephone call to the Pennsylvania Domestic Violence
30 Hotline, the department may not make a record of the
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1 individual's name or other means of identifying the
2 individual.
3 Section 4. Regulations.
4 The department shall promulgate the rules and regulations
5 necessary to administer this act.
6 Section 5. Effective date.
7 This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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