Adult Protective Services

ADvancing States presentation at the NAPSA Conference on Medicaid and Adult Protective Services.

This toolkit provides resources and guidance for front-line staff and administrators in APS working with clients with substance abuse concerns. This toolkit provides a variety of resources including but not limited to: Training for front-line staff on working with substance abuse disorders and possible co-occurring mental health challenges, Lived experience stories from people recovering from substance abuse, and Policies and procedures template for APS administrators.

APS TARC recently released an issue brief to address approaches and benefits to quality assurance (QA) as well as considerations in developing a QA program. The brief describes the QA process for documentation, supervisor review and approval, case reading, performance management, and program evaluation. Additionally, the brief provides explanations in who to include in establishing a QA process, why it is important to conduct a QA process, what should be reviewed, and other questions.

ACL released the first Research Agenda for Adult Protective Services (APS). The goals of the Research Agenda include: • Providing guidance to researchers, APS programs, and funders to help advance the field • Highlighting gaps in research in order to inform the APS field • Helping build a cohesive body of evidence for the APRS field. ACL, in collaboration with a panel of adult maltreatment experts, identified and ranked 61 high-priority APS research questions for the Research Agenda.

ACL released a report of data collected by the National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System. This report details the finding from the fourth year (2019) of data collected by NAMRS. NAMRS is the only comprehensive national initiative compiling data on the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older adults and adults with disabilities as reported to adult protective services. Data collected by NAMRS include quantitative and qualitative responses on many areas within adult protective services.

This three-part brief provides information on how collaborating with APS can help older adults and adults with disabilities who are subjected to abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Part one gives a general overview of APS, including program functions, policies, and practices. The second part covers APS abuse reporting, intake, screening, triaging, and investigation processes. The third and final section of this brief focuses on the importance of collaborating with APS during interventions.

This report is the first in a series of three total Year 1 reports from NAMRS. It provides a general overview of the operating procedures of state Adult Protective Services agencies. While this report focuses on the hard data provided by states, future reports will discuss the narrative data also submitted by states. NAMRS has also released a background report summarizing the purpose and process of their national data collection system, as well as reference appendices A-C.

The John A. Hartford Foundation recently released Elder Justice: A John A. Hartford Foundation Change AGEnts Issue Brief. A startling statistic shows, "that at least 2 million older adults (one in 10 people over the age of 60) is abused or mistreated each year." This brief was generated from two gatherings of elder justice thought leaders aimed to help The John A. Hartford Foundation plan a course of action that builds on the strengths of existing efforts and funded programs.