Utah officials are confronting a growing dilemma over sexual relationships between elderly residents of long-term care facilities and unlicensed staff members, which currently fall outside existing legal and professional prohibitions.
Among the cases cited by authorities was an 18-year-old high school student who reportedly had sex with multiple residents and encouraged friends to seek jobs at the homes. In another, a nursing assistant began a relationship with a resident more than 50 years her senior, and in a third, a physical therapy aide was discovered attempting to have sex with an 80-year-old woman reported missing. The aide later admitted he had no romantic feelings, saying: "No. But she wanted me to, and I was willing."
Kaye Lynn Wootton, director of the Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Division in the Utah Attorney General’s Office, told state lawmakers that such relationships, even if consensual, create significant power imbalances. "Imagine when that relationship, if there was a real relationship, goes south," she said. "Those same people have to bathe them and dress them. And it’s just inappropriate and puts these people in a very bad position."
While licensed medical professionals are barred from sexual contact with patients, the same rules do not apply to unlicensed staff such as nursing assistants, housekeepers and food service workers. State Senator Jennifer Plumb, an emergency doctor, sponsored a bill last year to criminalise such conduct, citing cases of individuals moving between facilities and forming relationships at each. She argued that licensing was not feasible at the state level, so a criminal penalty was necessary to track and deter the behaviour.
However, Nate Crippes, an attorney with the Disability Law Center, has opposed criminalisation, saying it would unfairly single out care providers and discriminate against disabled residents. "My colleague uses a wheelchair," he told Fox 13. "And if each of us were to engage in sexual conduct with a nurse who was providing us care... it would be a crime for that nurse if she or he did that with him but not with me." He argued that existing accountability, such as staff being fired, may already be working as a deterrent.
