Deborah Yetter, Louisville Courier Journal

In Kentucky, anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect is required by state law to report it to the authorities — a law that also applies to suspected abuse of an older or vulnerable adult.

But attempting to follow the law is resulting in lengthy waits on hold and frustrating delays for people trying to call the state’s abuse or neglect hotline, say those who have tried to use it recently.

“We thought that there was a safety net in our community for people who may truly be in danger,” said Becky Smith, of Louisville, who said it took repeated efforts on her part to report an elderly, disabled woman at risk of harm. “That’s a falsehood at this point.”

Reporting child abuse may involve waits of up to an hour or more on hold for people attempting to call the same line used to report adult abuse.

“It’s appalling,” said Frankfort lawyer Anna Stewart Whites, who said she spent hours on hold over two days last month trying to report a case of suspected child abuse. “It’s absolutely unsafe.”

Whites said she finally got through to the Department for Community Based Services, the state’s social services agency, by faxing a letter detailing the alleged abuse and warning officials the child was at risk of further harm.

Kentucky has the highest rate of child abuse in the nation, a crisis detailed in a five-part series in August by The Courier Journal.

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the response time for callers to the hotline is “unpredictable” and said it’s alarming that people are having trouble getting through to report suspected abuse.

“When you are in a crisis, you do not need to be put on hold,” he said. “Ever. Period.”

A Courier Journal reporter tried the state abuse hotline three days in a row, Nov. 11, 12 and 13, and spent an hour on hold each day with no answer. That effort was prompted by a message left Nov. 11 with The Courier Journal from a caller who identified himself as a health professional and said he spent three hours that day on several unsuccessful attempts to reach someone on the hotline to report suspected abuse of a child.

“It’s ridiculous,” the caller said.

The website of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which operates the hotline, offers callers the option of faxing or emailing a report between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.

But that option is not available on weekends or holidays, and the cabinet website states reports by fax or email “will not be reviewed during evenings, weekends or state holidays.”

Nov. 11 was Veterans Day, the day the caller said he tried for three hours to call in a child abuse report. Email was not an option because of the holiday.

Centerstone, a community mental health agency, operates the hotline under contract to the cabinet on evenings, weekends and holidays.

Centerstone CEO Abby Drane said lengthy waits on hold to report suspected abuse are unacceptable and her agency is working to improve its response.

She said it appears the hotline had a heavy volume of calls on Nov. 11, likely because it was a holiday when people are off work and able to call. On that day, 587 people called to report suspected abuse, she said.

The longest wait time for such a caller was one hour and 24 minutes, she said.

“Long hold times and dropped calls are not acceptable and we are immediately addressing the system changes needed to improve our response times for these very important, lifesaving calls,” Drane said.

Cabinet for Health and Family Services officials said they were not able to immediately respond to questions about how the hotline is operated and staffed, whether there is a policy on how long people should be placed on hold, and whether delays of up to an hour are acceptable. The Courier Journal began seeking the information Nov. 11 and followed up with several requests.

Questions about the hotline have been raised before, most recently in July, when state Sen. Danny Carroll, a Paducah Republican, asked cabinet officials about it at a meeting of the legislature’s Program Review and Investigations Committee.

Carroll, who is CEO of Easter Seals West Kentucky, said his organization, which includes a child development center, had experienced problems in attempting to report suspected abuse through the hotline.

“I personally haven’t been pleased with the response,” said Carroll, the committee co-chairman.

Cabinet Chief of Staff Lesa Dennis told Carroll the agency is working to improve the system.

Carroll told Dennis he understands the agency has been strapped by budget cuts and is in need of resources.

“I’m acutely aware you all need more funding and more staff,” he said. “I hope there comes a time when we can invest more in your work.”

Smith, a semiretired social worker who assists older and vulnerable adults as private clients, said the state simply doesn’t have enough staff to handle the volume of calls it receives, based on her conversations with current and former workers.

“They are totally overwhelmed with adult cases but are mandated to handle children’s cases,” she said. “There’s very little they can do because they have no time to do anything.”

Smith said her problems with the hotline began when she tried to report the plight of a woman she was assisting who had begun wandering outside her home at night, causing disturbances, and was living with little food and no working refrigerator.

After waiting on hold for half an hour trying to reach someone at the hotline on a Friday afternoon, Smith sent an email to the cabinet. When no one from the cabinet’s Adult Protective Services agency, or APS, had checked on her client by Monday, she followed up with another email.

Smith didn’t hear from a social worker until Thursday, six days after her initial report, when a worker said she had visited the woman but couldn’t do anything for her right away.

The situation finally was resolved when the woman was hospitalized after a neighbor took out a mental inquest warrant, Smith said.

“APS did nothing about any of that,” she said.

Smith said nothing will change unless the agency gets more staff and money from the state.

“They are trying to keep their heads above water now, but it’s hopeless,” she said.

As for now, she said, “We don’t have a safety net. People are on their own.”

Kentucky’s hotline to report abuse or neglect is 877-597-2331 or 877-KYSAFE1. People may also report suspected abuse or neglect to the police.