EMU Today

YPSILANTI – Two Eastern Michigan University professors recently spoke to Michigan lawmakers, pushing for a new state law to protect vulnerable adults in Michigan’s adult foster care facilities against abuse. Associate professors Christina Marsack-Topolewski and Annemarie Kelly, faculty members in the College of Health and Human Services, testified before the Michigan House of Representatives Committee for families, seniors, and children in Lansing on Sept. 19. The testimony is available online through the State’s House database of recorded hearings. 

Kelly and Marsack-Topolewski spoke in support of House Bill 4841, which seeks to create enhanced standards to protect the health and well-being of adults living in foster care facilities. If passed into law, the bill will create more detailed protections against caregiver abuse, improve employee training standards, and foster transparency in processing reports of abuse. The bill also protects against retaliation for whistleblowers who speak up about abuse concerns. 

State Representative Stephanie Young of the 16th House District sponsored and championed the proposed law.  Representative Young has titled the bill “Theresa's Law” in honor of Theresa Skrabis, who died in a Michigan facility in 2021 due to allegations of abuse and neglect.  

Noting that current Michigan laws focus only on physical abuse and harassment, Kelly and Marsack-Topolewski advocated for stronger protections for foster care residents that expressly include cases of emotional, mental, and sexual abuse.  “This bill sends a simple and clear message that abuse, in all forms, is never acceptable,” Kelly said. “Merely hoping that entities will do the right thing is not enough to protect our vulnerable adults. Ongoing abuses are being unchecked, unreported, and repeated.”

“Both consumers, as well as their families, are frequently afraid to report things, and they might not know of the mechanism to do so—that should bring us great concern,” Marsack-Topolewski said.  

Kelly and Marsack-Topolewski emphasized that while adults in adult foster care facilities are classified as vulnerable adults under Michigan law, the caregivers for this population are not subject to the same stringent protections as those in adult nursing homes. Under Michigan’s current vulnerable adult laws, vulnerable adults are considered any individual age 18 or over who, because of age, developmental disability, mental illness, or physical disability, requires supervision or personal care or lacks the personal and social skills needed to live independently. The definition specifically includes all people placed in adult foster care families.

“We have not only a social expectation to modernize these things, we have a moral obligation because these are our families, our friends, our neighbors,” Marsack-Topolewski said. 

Kelly and Marsack-Topolewski coordinate their interdisciplinary advocacy through the EMU Disability Planning and Policy Center.  Together, they have created a significant body of research concerning vulnerable adult abuse cases and policy best practices.

Marsack-Topolewski teaches in the School of Social Work and can be reached at ctopole1@emich.edu. Kelly teaches in the School of Health Sciences and can be reached at akelly30@emich.edu. 

About Eastern Michigan University
Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest public university in Michigan. It currently serves more than 14,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering and Technology; Health and Human Services; and its graduate school. National publications regularly recognize EMU for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. Visit the University’s rankings and points of pride websites to learn more. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website. To stay up to date on University news, activities and announcements, visit EMU Today.