Adult Protective Services Internship Paper

The primary clients that the agency services are the children whom are considered the alleged victims. The organization also works with the parents and any other adult that is considered an alleged perpetrator. As stated on the DFPS website “The mission of The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is to protect children, the elderly, and people with disabilities from abuse, neglect, and exploitation by involving clients, families, and communities”. Child Protective Services was established to investigate all allegations of abuse and/or neglect of children under the age of eighteen. The investigation is usually initiated through an intake-the process where information is received from an outside source- doctor, family, friend, school personnel, law enforcement etc. - to the agency

Elder abuse includes physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as well as neglect, exploitation and abandonment of our older generation (Falk, 2012). The people that cause these injuries include the elderly person’s own family and staff members of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, medical rehabilitation facilities and hospitals (NCOA, 2017). There is approximately 1 in 10 older adults that have experienced some type of elder abuse in the United States (NCOA, 2017). Within these staggering numbers, only 1

.Adult Protection Services is an evolving agency that provide services to many people. Adult Protective Services is a state ran agency, and is required to offer services to the elderly population. At the agency, clients are referral from several different issues. Our agency investigated claims of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of elder or disabled citizens. The greatest social issue that face many Adult Protective Services caseworkers, is physical and self-neglect. A lot of the elderly population face many challenges throughout their later life. “Old age in American society presents the individual with a variety of potential problems and stresses, most of which are in the category of social, economic, and personal losses”(Ruiz, 1985,

Elder Justice Act has made it possible and easy to detect signs of elder abuse by creating programs to assist and aid older victims of abuse, and prosecute abusers. California has passed laws making elder abuse a civil liability, and violation of the laws will subject the perpetrator to criminal liability (Stimmel Law, n.d.). According to California Advocates For Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) (2017), criminal elder abuse “occurs where any person who knows that a person is an elder and willfully causes or permits that elder to suffer, or inflicts unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering on the elder. It also covers situations where a person willfully causes or permits an elder to be placed in a situation in which elder’s health is endangered” (para, 1). While civil elder abuse refers to intend physical abuse, isolation, abduction, abandonment, financial abuse, or any type of elder mistreatment resulting in physical harm, pain or mental suffering of an older adult (CANHR, 2017). The State of California Department of Justice is composed of three programs designed to prosecute elder abuse. First, is the Violent Crime Unit, this unit investigates and prosecutes physical elder abuse committed by individual employees against patients in elder care facilities (The State of California Department of Justice, n.d.). Second, the Facilities Enforcement Team, the team investigates and prosecutes

Too often seniors refuse to report abuse, neglect, or crime against them out of fear of losing independence. It is a common misconception that being victimized will deem you unfit to live independently and will result in being placed in a facility of some sort. It is important that seniors feel they can turn to those around them with concerns and incidents that occur. In the event that a senior is not forthcoming with information there are a number of avenues that may involve reporting of suspected incidents. Hospitals, doctors, community service organizations, and long term care facilities can report suspected crimes to authorities or Department of Social Services in an effort to protect the individual. If a senior cannot properly protect themselves then health care professionals from all areas should have the ability to act on behalf of the individual to seek help but not dictate the overall outcome as a result. For example: simply finding that a person has been a victim of exploitation should not mean that a person be moved immediately into a facility forfeiting their right to care for themselves. All facilities acting to protect a senior should aim to preserve senior

In 1974, the development of the Social Security Act helped “authorize protective services from abuse suffering, exploitation and neglect at all income levels, for people of age 18 and older (The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 2012). During this time adult protective services were in need of funding but the problem was that there was no separation or way of organizing the money to adequately share and split the costs between helping the children and older

Elder self-neglect and abuse is a serious and growing problem in the U.S., there are about 2 million cases today (Dong et al., 2009, p.

One way elder abuse or elder mistreatment can be defined is, “intentional actions that cause harm or create a serious risk of harm, whether or not intended, to a vulnerable elder by a caregiver or other person who stands in a trust relationship to the elder” (Bonnie & Wallace). There are seven main forms of elder abuse which include emotional, physical, psychological, sexual, financial, neglect, abandonment, and self-neglect (Cohen, Levin, Gagin & Friedman, 2007; Fulmer, 2008; Thompson & Priest, 2005). Even though only 6.2% of victims are abused in long-term care settings, my experience of witnessing neglect and abandonment are very serious (Teaster et al., 2006).

The perpetrators also portray several risk factors and these include circumstances that put them at the likelihood of abusing the elderly. The most common risk factors in this case are mental illness such as depression and anxiety as this triggers verbal and physical abuse; substance misuse and this has been linked with physical, emotional, sexual, financial and psychological abuse; and abuser dependency as their level of dependence threatens the well-being of the adult.

With medical and technological advances, the United State’s life expectancy continues to increase, leading to an improved number of elderly individuals. As a nursing student, who worked at a nursing home for three years in high school, I am quite familiar with elderly abuse, especially institutional abuse. Prior to this discussion post, I persisted more familiar with the types of elderly abuse, rather than the incidence rates within the United States. To clarify this discussion post, elderly abuse stands defined as, “an intentional act, or failure to act, by a caregiver or another person in a relationship involving an expectation of trust that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). The risk of harm to an older adult subsisted evident in an institutional setting, from my work experience. While I cannot disclose that the nurses physically, sexually, or financially abused the residents, I am aware of the neglect and emotional abuse the occurred in this setting. The abuse that occurs to elderly individuals stems for two triggers – caregiver stress and the vulnerability of the elder. According to the textbook, “Exhaustion and anger can reach a boiling point and can create intergenerational conflicts” (Olson, DeFrain, & Skogrand, 2014, p. 383). When caregivers acquire stress, they tend to take out their aggression on the elder, intentionally or unintentionally, as they remain overwhelmed with emotions. Personally, I

Each year there is an estimated 4 million elderly Americans that are victims of physical, psychological, or abused in other ways (Elder Abuse and Neglect: In Search of Solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from http://www.apa.org/pi/aging/resources/guides/elder-abuse.aspx). There are some cases that get reported to the proper authorities and some cases that do not get reported at all. For the abused elderly people, their lives are put at risk and their health also declines. They feel helpless and lonely and have increased psychological distress and research has suggested that these victims die earlier than those who have not been abused (Elder Abuse and Neglect: In Search of Solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from http://www.apa.org/pi/aging/resources/guides/elder-abuse.aspx).

There is a lack of national guidelines for describing abuse, myriad uncoordinated state and local laws for reporting and intervening in abusive situations and poor education, training, and support for professional service workers, family caregivers and community volunteers (Rosen, 2014). Reporting elder abuse is a growing problem due to the lack of education of what elder abuse really is also of the signs and how to report it. In the article by Blancato, forty-four states, Indiana included have required health care workers by law to report elder abuse, while in the other six states health care workers are not obligated to do so.

In the United States, the size of the geriatric population will rise 19% more than the current population, in the next 20 years, and the number of elderly abuse cases will increase as the proportion of geriatrics grows (Hoover & Polson, 2014). According to the Journal of the American Society on Aging (2014), more than 5 million elderly persons in the US have experienced abuse or neglect; however, only 7% of cases are reported (Rosen, 2014). In most states, healthcare workers have professional and legal obligations to report elder abuse to Adult Protective Services (APS) (Hoover & Polson, 2014). Nurses, especially in the emergency room (ER), can be the first people who encounter

In general, elder abuse refers to any knowing, intentional or negligent act by a caregiver or any other person that causes harm or risk of harm to a vulnerable adult. All fifty states have laws of some form that prohibit elder abuse. Sadly, we do not know exactly how many elderly suffer from neglect and abuse. Although, statistics show female elders are abused at a higher rate than males. The elderly person may be hesitant to report the abuse because of lack of physical ability to report or fear or retaliation. Most of the time, the abusers are family members. Family members who use a lot drugs or alcohol, have a mental illness, and who feel burdened by their caregiving responsibilities are more likely to be abusive. About 5.1 million Americans over the age of 65 have

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is an agency for the community. It is responsible for the protection, investigative and treatment services of the citizens. Thus, a DFPS worker must fulfill multiple services and play different roles when responding to different situations working with Family and Protective Services.