LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – According to the recently released “Adult Protective Services Annual Report,” APS received a whopping 57,504 referrals in FY 2024 for suspected abuse, neglect, and exploitation of vulnerable adults. However, 63% of those referrals were denied.
Thousands of red flags.
Only 21,137 cases made it to an actual investigation after they were deemed to have met agency “criteria” outlined in law and policy. And of those, only 41% were substantiated. In other words, thousands of red flags went ignored or were deemed not serious enough to bother with.
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That’s 36,367 reports that didn’t qualify for a second look. And these aren’t crank calls. They are potential abuse cases that got reported mostly by medical professionals and professional agency staff including mandated reporters like social workers, mental health agency workers and others delivering human services to the vulnerable.
Who does APS serve?
What is Adult Protective Services? It’s a statutorily mandated program administered by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) designed to protect vulnerable adults from abuse, neglect, and exploitation. A vulnerable adult is someone aged 18 or older who, due to physical or mental impairments or advanced age, is unable to protect themselves from harm. This includes individuals who are elderly, developmentally disabled, physically or intellectually disabled, unable to meet basic daily needs, or isolated from family and social activities.
Michigan’s APS program is statewide and present in all 83 counties, with each county being part of a larger regional section. Staffing statewide includes 541 workers and 68 supervisors. The age of most of the clients served is between ages 66 to 85.
A mission statement full of promises.
The mission of APS is to ensure “vulnerable adults and their families receive support through assessment, referral and provision of services to live in the least restrictive setting with a sense of dignity, safety and well-being.” The program works to keep vulnerable adults away from harm including things like abandonment, emotional abuse, financial exploitation, physical and sexual abuse.
APS investigators are tasked with coordinating with mental health, public health, law enforcement, probate courts, community groups, and the public to protect vulnerable adults. Services provided or referred by APS may include protective services investigations, social protection, financial management, counseling, education and training, health-related needs, home help, housing assistance, and more.
The clock ticks – but so do the excuses.
According to the report, the average APS investigation in Michigan drags on for 63 days, with 20% taking more than three months. That’s a long time to wait if you’re being financially drained or physically abused. Sure, APS says there’s no “hard deadline” for closing a case, but when the fridge is empty and you’re afraid of a family member who has been hitting you, that bureaucratic shrug doesn’t cut it.
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And if you thought APS could swoop in like superheroes, think again. They can’t remove anyone from their home, can’t make people accept help, and won’t even investigate abuse in nursing homes or prisons. So, unless the stars align just right, many of the abused, neglected and exploited are on their own.
Tech upgrades and awareness days – not exactly life-saving tools.
Yes, there were some wins in the report. APS finally launched an online reporting portal for mandated reporters and they gave their supervisors a fancy “Pre-Closure Case Review” checklist to use to make sure investigations aren’t totally off the rails. They also updated policies and workers attended conferences.
But is that what Michigan’s vulnerable adults needed? A few more database fields and some PowerPoint slides? There’s a big difference between checking boxes and doing a deep dive and genuinely checking on people – and it looks like Michigan has some catching up to do.
Some progress, but let’s not break out the confetti.
To be fair, APS did manage to secure funding for client goods and services and ran a client satisfaction survey to ask, “Hey, how’d we do?” That’s better than nothing, but when nearly one in four Michiganders is over 60 and the state ranks in the top 15 for aging populations, the vulnerable in the state need more than surveys and visibility campaigns.
Until the referral-to-help pipeline becomes faster and more effective, too many vulnerable adults will continue falling through the cracks – and a commemorative World Elder Abuse Awareness Day event isn’t going to fix that.
Tucked at the end of the report is what reads like a half-hearted apology – or perhaps an admission of defeat – in the form of a quote from President Ronald Reagan: “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”
