News
First-Time Federal Guidelines for APS
- By: USAging
- On: 09/13/2016 12:58:07
- In: Policy & Advocacy
Earlier this month, Acting Assistant Secretary for Aging Edwin Walker announced the first-ever voluntary guidelines for state Adult Protective Services (APS) systems, as well as new grants to foster innovation in elder justice during the fall meeting of the Elder Justice Coordinating Council (EJCC).
n4a and other experts and stakeholders weighed in last November on the proposed guidelines.
n4a's November 2015 Comments to ACL
From ACL's media release:
ACL facilitated the development of the voluntary consensus-based guidelines which will assist states in developing efficient and effective APS systems. The guidelines provide recommendations from the field about quality APS practice in the areas of program administration, response times, receiving reports of maltreatment, conducting investigations, service planning and intervention, training, and evaluation.
The guidelines were developed by experts in the field of APS and adult maltreatment and are based on research on what works in APS and similar systems where it was available. The final guidelines reflect extensive feedback from members of the public and a broad range of stakeholders including over 500 comments and feedback from 15 listening sessions. ACL intends to re-visit and update the guidelines every two years to account for new feedback from the field and emerging research.
The guidelines reflect the value of, and continued need for, an evidence base to guide the work of combating elder abuse. To that end, ACL is funding eight innovation grants totaling $3.3 million to support the development of knowledge and infrastructure in the areas of guardianship, elder abuse forensic centers, self-neglect, and combatting elder abuse in Indian country.