Adult Protective Services

Overview

Adult Protective Services

Trained county staff dedicated to the field of aging help ensure the safety and well-being of elders and dependent adults. Staff investigate allegations of abuse and neglect, assess client needs, and provide short-term case management and bridging to other services. County adult and aging departments also educate the community about elder abuse prevention and identification, as well as how communities can support a person’s right to dignity, self-determination and to live in the least restrictive environment possible. 

Featured Content

DSS Info Flyer: What is APS?

Featured Content

DSS Info Flyer: APS Mandated Reporters 2022

Featured Content

DSS Flyer Info: Signs of Abuse

Budget Priority

Adult Protective Services Training Program Budget Memo

The California State Association of Public Administrators/Guardians/Conservators (CAPAPGPC), California Commission on Aging, California Elder Justice Coalition, and County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA) request support for $5.75 General Fund (GF) over three years to continue support of a training program and infrastructure to enable counties to meet local needs to protect and serve this vulnerable elderly and dependent adult population.

Forms/Guidelines

Adult Protective Services Consistency Guidelines

These guidelines are for voluntary use by county APS staff and have been developed by the CWDA Protective Services Operating Committee (PSOCs), a subcommittee of the CWDA Adult Services Committee.

Article San Jose Mercury News

Opinion: Why state should fully fund housing program for victims of elder abuse
The Home Safe program would help abuse and neglect victims maintain a stable living environment

By ROBERT MENICOCCI

The California Legislature will decide the fate of the Home Safe program that could provide desperately needed housing for adults and seniors with disabilities.

Article Sacramento Bee

A good investment to keep California’s seniors from becoming homeless

By Frank Mecca

We are witnessing an awful reality that as California’s senior population booms, so does the number of elderly and disabled adults who are abused, neglected or exploited.

They often are forced into potentially life-threatening homelessness even after Adult Protective Services is alerted. Unfortunately, when APS was created two decades ago, it wasn’t designed, nor was it ever funded, to deal with complicated housing issues.

Budget Priority

Establish Home Safe: Homelessness Prevention for Vulnerable Seniors

CWDA is seeking $15 million State General Fund to establish Home Safe, a homelessness prevention and rapid re‑housing demonstration grant program for victims of elder and dependent adult abuse and neglect. This proposed one‑time augmentation would allow 15 participating counties to demonstrate over three years how providing short-term housing crisis intervention can help reduce the incidence and risk of homelessness among California’s older adults.

Blog post

Victims of Elder Abuse Are Being Forced into Homelessness at an Alarming Rate

Home Safe program would help counties step in to protect vulnerable adults

Alice* weighed only 80 pounds when she was rushed to the hospital last year by ambulance. At 80 years old, with limited mobility, she was terrified to return home to her daughter and adult grandsons. Alice knew the brutal neglect she had suffered would only continue. These family members refused to help Alice get to the kitchen to eat, or to the bathroom to use the toilet. She was often left to soil her bed.

Publication

APS and IHSS County Workforce Survey

This is a summary of a survey conducted in 2017 of 58 county APS and IHSS programs. The survey gathered information about counties’ APS and IHSS workforce, specifically their recruitment methods, staffing levels, funding sources, salaries and classifications.

Download the 2017 APS/IHSS Survey Summary

Blog post

Victims of Elder Abuse and Neglect Should Not End Up Homeless

“Elderly woman tries to make sense of eviction from longtime home,” read the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle on March 31. A day later, a Los Angeles Times headline said: “Once middle class, she hung on as long as she could. Now she and her two dogs live in a car in Carlsbad.”

Featured Content

Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse Awareness Campaign Toolkit Launched

The California Association of Area Agencies on Aging (C4A) is raising awareness about elder and dependent adult abuse by launching a month-long education and resource campaign this June. The purpose of the campaign is to educate Californians about the different types of abuse, how to recognize them, and how to report abuse to the appropriate local Adult Protective Services agency.

Article

California Receives Federal Grant to Enhance Adult Protective Services

California is among 13 states receiving a grant for its Adult Protective Services (APS) system to address the abuse, neglect, and exploitations of older adults and people with disabilities.

Blog post

Adult Protective Services Workers Save Lives
With elder abuse cases rising and California's aging population growing, a strong, statewide training program is needed now more than ever.

Imagine getting a call that your elderly father – who you thought died two years ago – is alive. An Adult Protective Services worker shares that your father, who lives 100 miles from you, who you thought succumbed to complications of a traumatic brain injury, is the victim of physical, financial and psychological abuse. For several years, he’s been isolated and neglected by two people you thought were his caregivers.

Forms/Guidelines

Template MOU between County APS and Long-Term Care Ombudsman

The laws and regulations guiding both APS and LTC Ombudsman Program allow for flexibility when responding to reports of abuse or neglect. This flexibility provides each county the ability to determine and agree to one way of interpreting regulations for use in their county.

Forms/Guidelines

Template MOU between County APS and Local Public Guardian Program

This MOU between County APS and Local Public Guardian Programs was designed as a menu to give the APS and Public Guardian parties involved a host of options. Participants are encouraged at a local level to choose the options that best suit their needs/interests, to alter the given language in favor of more jurisdictionally appropriate terms, and/or to delete or amend whole sections of the document.

Forms/Guidelines

APS Cross Reporting and Referral Guide

This document is designed for use by the APS worker and APS Hotlines as a guide to cross-reporting and referring to other agencies who may be able to assist in all or part of an Adult Protective Services investigation.

Forms/Guidelines

SB 196 – APS Initiated Restraining Order (AIRO)

Senate Bill 196, now referred to as APS Initiated Restraining Order (AIRO), passed in 2015 and became effective July 1, 2016. This legislation modified W&I Code 15557.03 and 15610.07 to allow an APS agency to file a Request for Elder or Dependent Adult Abuse Restraining Orders (EA-100) on behalf of a client who has suffered abuse as defined in section 15610.07(a) and who meets additional criteria as outlined in the code section. The following is an APS Initiated Restraining Order Template for use by county human service departments.

IT Project

Opportunities for County Input to CMIPS II Changes

CWDA works with the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the Office of Systems Integration (OSI) to provide county input into CMIPS II system changes. We have several significant change requests pending that will involve joint state and county input into the design, which will occur through a workgroup process.

Presentation

A Day in the Life of Adult Protective Services

This report takes unprecedented in-depth look on the calls made to Adult Protective Services in one 24-hour period.