- Could you provide an overview
of what Adult Protective
Services actually does?
- Yes, Adult Protective Services
will get a referral
for abuse, neglect,
financial exploitation.
In some states,
they even investigate
reports of self-neglect.
The basic things that APS is
looking for is,
they're looking at my capacity--
mental capacity.
Do I appear to have the ability
to give informed consent?
If I'm dependent,
in what way am I dependent?
Do I need help with activities
of daily living--
independent activities
of daily living?
What is it that
I can do for myself;
that I can't do for myself?
And as important
for those things that
I can't do for myself,
I'm able to manage that.
Am I able to get someone
to help me?
And then they're looking
to substantiate
whether abuse, neglect,
or exploitation happened.
So in that whole package,
they're looking at capacity,
dependency,
and they're looking
to investigate
abuse, neglect,
and financial exploitation.
- Is there an Adult Protective
Services in every state?
- Yes, there is
in all 50 states.
- And is that governed by state
or federal law?
- State laws, and it varies,
and that's the interesting thing
with Adult Protective Services.
There isn't a federal mandate
similar to what people
are used to
with Child Protective Services,
for example, where definitions
are the same
and a lot of data collection.
So that's why
I would encourage people
no matter what state
you're in
is to take a look at the Adult
Protective Services Act.
or the enabling
legislations--to look at that.
It varies.
It varies on
who they investigate.
Some, for example,
are 18 and older
because it's based on incapacity
and dependency.
And some are based on age,
and some of it is 60 or 65.
- Adult Protective Services
receives referrals
from the community,
and anybody in the community
can make a referral.
Adult Protective Service workers
go out in the field,
and they investigate the client
in their environment,
the environment where they're
being abused.
So they go out to determine
whether abuse
is indeed occurring.
And that can be
through interviewing
the person
who's allegedly abused,
any person in
that person's surrounding--
neighbors, friends, relatives,
doctors.
So the interview
and the investigation
is quite extensive.
We work with law enforcement to
help investigate this
because there's a social service
perspective
and there's a law enforcement
perspective.
But we work collaboratively to
investigate these allegations.
There are clients
who have capacity
and those clients who
don't have capacity.
If you're determined to have
capacity,
you have the right to
self-determination,
which means
you can make a decision
that people don't agree with.
But when you don't
have capacity,
that's where it
changes a bit.
Because then we may have to go
for more restrictive
intervention,
which means we might even
have to go to court
for guardianship
if we feel like
you're making bad decisions
based on your capacity issues.
- I often hear what appears to
me to be a confusion
between a law enforcement
investigation
and an Adult Protective
Services investigation.
And it sounds like
they're two different things.
Can you describe
some of those differences?
- Yes,
Adult Protective Services
is a social work perspective
in some jurisdictions,
where we go out to see socially
what's going on.
We are not there to prove abuse.
We're not there to determine
whether somebody
has broken the law.
But we are going there to
determine whether or not
someone
has a social service need.
- Well, the police
would look into
whether a crime has occurred,
so that's our--
that's our role.
And if a crime's occurred,
like I said, investigate it,
pursue it.
While DSHS
or Adult Protective Services,
their role is more of
a civil investigation.
So it would be, for example,
if a vulnerable adult
has a caregiver,
and that caregiver has not
fulfilled their obligations
or is neglecting or
abusing the vulnerable adult,
then they would have their own
civil administrative hearings
to try maybe and remove this--
this caregiver.
Their track is a civil track,
and our track as police
is criminal,
whether we are gonna have
a criminal case or not.
- We need to do a better job
about what we think
abuse and neglect
and exploitation might be.
It may be in an Adult Protective
Services statute,
but it certainly might not be
in the criminal statute.
Law enforcement is asking us
"What's the crime?
Tell me.
I'll investigate."
And APS is saying, "Well,
this person's been abused.
Investigate him, prosecute."
When maybe that doesn't even
go together.
So there is a difference.
We need to tie
Adult Protective Services
and that investigation
of whether I have capacity
and whether I've been abused
and neglected
to what are those
criminal statutes
that our partners
in law enforcement
can help us come in
and gather evidence
and prosecute.
So on one side,
we may be in an APS situation
where the person
may not have been abused
or neglected and needs help.
That, to me,
is a different kind of case--
providing resources,
offering a case plan,
hooking the person up with
family members if they want to,
allowing that senior
to make the decisions
and drive that process--
as opposed to a crime has been
committed, regardless of age,
even for those of us
who are older,
and law enforcement
is gonna investigate that
and see if it's prosecutable.
- What about victims who say
"I don't want your help;
I'm refusing any services"?
What can you do
in a situation like that?
- If an APS caseworker goes out
and someone says,
"No, that's exactly
what I'm gonna say
when you come to my house.
"I'm embarrassed.
I'm ashamed.
"I want--don't want to
lose my independence.
"I want to stay in my own home,
"but I don't know
how I got in this trouble,
"and I don't know
how to get out.
But the last thing I'm gonna do
is tell you about it."
So if an older victim
says no to me,
I make sure to explain
who I am,
make sure that I can
to the extent possible
even through the
screen door if I have to--
what it is that the services
that I provide.
And I try at the same time
to talk about what I can
and can't do.
The person may tell me
to go away.
Person say that I'm gonna
come back.
That's fine.
I leave my card.
And I may come back
at a different time of day.
If this was the morning, I may
come back in the afternoon.
I would have tried to get
some information.
But we need to have rapport.
And as well intentioned
as you and I are
or any of us are
dealing with any victim,
but especially an older victim,
we're a stranger.
They don't know us.
And especially if we know
the dynamics of elder abuse
where the vast majority
of perpetrators
are family members
or loved ones,
they've already been taken
advantage by someone
that they would never dream
would do that.
So a stranger comes to the door
and says,
"I'm from the state,
and I'm here to help,"
I'm not gonna believe it.
It's gonna take a little
rapport building.
At the same time,
I'm also gonna try to find out
how that person
was tied to the community,
to family or other agencies,
'cause that might be the way
to get in as well.
- How about someone that appears
to have some sort of
cognitive impairment?
What can a social worker who's
trying to initiate contact
with that sort of person
do in those circumstances?
- The Adult Protective Services
caseworker,
unless they have training
beyond what's normally trained,
they can only do a beginning
assessment of capacity.
They can take a look
at the person
and see how they're acting
knowing that there may be
medical problems
and not psychiatric problems
that present in the same way.
"I'm not eating;
I'm not drinking;
I'm not taking my meds"
may look as though the same as
I have a dementia
or Alzheimer's
or some other disability.
What the APS worker can do is,
in most states--
and once again, check with
your individual state programs--
is we can try to have a
psychologist do a home visit
and to begin that assessment.
In the end,
if the person lacks capacity
and the APS caseworker
feels as though
the person is in
real danger--
our eyes and our nose tell us
that the person is
in danger,
they're presenting in a way
that's far outside
the normal spectrum
or confusion that
you and I would have
after a medical procedure
or being in a hospital
for a while--
then we may take a look at
working with the courts--
probate courts
may take a look at
trying to get a psychiatric
assessment of the person,
maybe even working with their
primary physician.
But Adult Protective Services
is charged with
doing that initial assessment
that may lead us
down different roads,
roads that are determined by
policy and procedure.
