(a) Each county may establish an interagency elder death team to assist local agencies in identifying and reviewing suspicious elder deaths and facilitating communication among persons who perform autopsies and the various persons and agencies involved in elder abuse or neglect cases. (b) Each county may develop a protocol that may be used as a guideline by persons performing autopsies on elder adults to assist coroners and other persons who perform autopsies in the identification of elder abuse, in the determination of whether elder abuse or neglect contributed to death or whether elder abuse or neglect had occurred prior to but was not the actual cause of death, and in the proper written reporting procedures for elder abuse or neglect, including the designation of the cause and mode of death.
