(a) Public information and interdepartmental consultation.--The department shall conduct an ongoing campaign designed to inform and educate older adults, professionals and the general public about the need for an availability of protective services under this chapter. The department shall consult with other departments of the Commonwealth on the design and implementation of the ongoing public awareness campaign. The department shall also consider the concerns of area agencies on aging and the entities identified by them under subsection (c).

(b) Staff training.--The department shall establish minimum standards of training and experience which protective services providers funded by the department shall be required to follow in the selection and assignment of staff for the provision of protective services.

(c) Protective services plans.--Each area agency on aging shall include a protective services plan as part of its annual plan. The plan shall describe the local implementation of this chapter, including the organization, staffing, mode of operations and financing of protective services, as well as the provisions made for purchase of services, interagency relations, interagency agreements, service referral mechanisms and locus of responsibility for cases with multiservice agency needs. The description of the methods that will be used by the agency, its designees and its service providers to assure the privacy of older adults receiving services and the confidentiality of all records shall be established by the department. The department shall establish a schedule for the submission and approval of the plans. The plan shall include a list of all entities, whether public or private, that have been identified by the area agency on aging as having substantial contact with potential victims or perpetrators of abuse, neglect, exploitation and abandonment. This list shall be submitted to the department for purposes of the public information campaign under subsection (a).