Pro­gram Spot­light: Under­stand­ing Adult Pro­tec­tive Services

April 30, 2021

I’m real­ly wor­ried about my neigh­bor up the street. She’s 83 and lives alone, but she’s been hav­ing more and more trou­ble keep­ing up with things around her home. Last week, I rang her door­bell to let her know she had a pack­age deliv­ered, and when she answered the door, I could see dirty dish­es stacked up in her liv­ing room and full trash bags pil­ing up in her kitchen that I wor­ry she could trip over. I could see she had ban­dages on her skin so I asked her about them — she said not to wor­ry, and men­tioned that she has­n’t been able to make it to the phar­ma­cy to pick up her reg­u­lar eczema pre­scrip­tion. She’s told me many times how proud she is to still live in the home where she raised her kids, but I wor­ry that she’s not car­ing for her­self prop­er­ly these days. I’ve offered to help her and she polite­ly refus­es. She’s the kind­est lady — I don’t want to get her in trou­ble, or worse, risk her being sent off to an assist­ed liv­ing facil­i­ty, but I don’t know how to help. What do I do?

Under­stand­ing Adult Pro­tec­tive Services

The goal of Adult Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices (APS) is to ensure that old­er adults are safe and that their needs are met in a way that empow­ers self-deter­mi­na­tion and inde­pen­dence. Ken­neth Young Cen­ter is the APS provider for Elk Grove and Schaum­burg Town­ships, and our team works tire­less­ly to serve old­er adults and their families. 

Ken­neth Young Cen­ter’s APS team proud­ly works along­side at-risk indi­vid­u­als to help pro­tect their rights and to ensure their safe­ty. Dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, their work has become even more impor­tant, as old­er adults and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties are more iso­lat­ed and as oth­er com­mu­ni­ty resources have become less avail­able for in-per­son sup­port. We have seen the num­ber of APS cas­es climb in recent months and are work­ing hard to ensure that each of our com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers are con­nect­ed with the sup­port they need to live safe­ly and independently. 

Check out the Q&A below to find answers to com­mon questions.

What is APS and How Does It Work?

APS is run by the Illi­nois Depart­ment on Aging that is car­ried out through sev­er­al trained provider agen­cies across the state, includ­ing KYC. The pro­gram works to resolve abuse, neglect, or finan­cial exploita­tion of peo­ple ages 60+ and adults with dis­abil­i­ties ages 18 – 59. 

If a com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber sus­pects that an old­er adult or an adult with a dis­abil­i­ty is being abused, finan­cial­ly exploit­ed, or neglect­ed, they can call APS to report the con­cern. A trained case man­ag­er will review the report and when appro­pri­ate, will reach out to the per­son who is poten­tial­ly at risk to learn more about their sit­u­a­tion. Dur­ing this con­ver­sa­tion, the case man­ag­er will rec­om­mend resources and sup­port­ive ser­vices that would secure the per­son­’s safe­ty and sta­bil­i­ty. With their per­mis­sion, they may ini­ti­ate an inves­ti­ga­tion into their safe­ty and needs and will work along­side them to reduce the risk of harm.

What Kinds of Cas­es Does APS Handle?

APS can inves­ti­gate cas­es of abuse, includ­ing phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, and sex­u­al abuse, as well as cas­es of pas­sive neglect, depri­va­tion, and con­fine­ment of an old­er adult or an adult with a dis­abil­i­ty. They can also inves­ti­gate cas­es of finan­cial exploita­tion, and cas­es of self-neglect.

How Much Infor­ma­tion Is Need­ed to Make a Report?

Basic infor­ma­tion, such as the poten­tial­ly at-risk indi­vid­u­al’s name and address are need­ed, and approx­i­mate age and oth­er con­tact infor­ma­tion is help­ful. Reporters should give a descrip­tion of the sus­pect­ed abuse, exploita­tion, or neglect sit­u­a­tion. How­ev­er, reporters do not need to do their own inves­ti­gat­ing before they call. This is an APS case man­ager’s job — they can take on the respon­si­bil­i­ty of research­ing fur­ther into the sit­u­a­tion. As soon as you rea­son­ably sus­pect the abuse or neglect, that is when you should call.

I’m Not Sure If I Should Call. What Should I Do?

Call! If you’re con­cerned about the safe­ty of an old­er adult or a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty, err on the side of call­ing to dis­cuss the sit­u­a­tion. Any­one in the state of Illi­nois can call APS at 1−866−800−1409, 1−888−206−1327 (TTY). By call­ing, you’re pro­vid­ing help­ful infor­ma­tion to a trained case man­ag­er who can take on the respon­si­bil­i­ty of decid­ing how to help next. If you’re still unsure whether or not you should report a case, you can call KYC’s Old­er Adults team to dis­cuss the sit­u­a­tion at 847−524−8800 and dial ​“2” in the phone menu. You’ll be con­nect­ed with a mem­ber of KYC’s APS team who can help pro­vide guid­ance and insight about the sit­u­a­tion in question.

If you are con­cerned for any­one’s imme­di­ate safe­ty, call 911. APS can­not pro­vide imme­di­ate assis­tance to an at-risk indi­vid­ual, so first respon­ders should always be called first if some­one is cur­rent­ly in danger.

What If the At-Risk Per­son Does­n’t Want Support?

The at-risk per­son has a right to self-deter­mi­na­tion. This means that APS can­not force a com­pe­tent at-risk per­son to pro­ceed with an inves­ti­ga­tion about their safe­ty or to accept sup­port­ive ser­vices with­out that per­son­’s con­sent. Sim­ply put, if the at-risk per­son decides that they don’t want assis­tance, they can refuse at any point. APS offers sup­port and con­nec­tions to resources and ser­vices for at-risk old­er adults and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, but APS can­not force an indi­vid­ual to accept this help. 

If I Make a Report, Will I Get Updates on the Case?

In most cas­es, no. After a report is made, the APS case man­ag­er can­not share any infor­ma­tion regard­ing the at-risk indi­vid­ual or any poten­tial inves­ti­ga­tions with any unau­tho­rized indi­vid­u­als or enti­ties, includ­ing whether or not an inves­ti­ga­tion is ini­ti­at­ed. After the reporter shares their con­cern, their role in the process is like­ly over. Although it can be frus­trat­ing, the reporter will not be updat­ed by APS with­out the at-risk indi­vid­u­al’s per­mis­sion, for the at-risk individual’s pri­va­cy. This pri­va­cy also applies to the reporter and the iden­ti­ty of the reporter is nev­er shared with the at-risk indi­vid­ual or their family.

What Kind of Sup­port Does an APS Case Man­ag­er Pro­vide to At-Risk Individuals?

APS case man­agers work along­side at-risk indi­vid­u­als to help ensure their long-term well­be­ing and sta­bil­i­ty. As long as the indi­vid­ual accepts their assis­tance, the APS case man­ag­er will rec­om­mend sup­port­ive ser­vices and pro­vide help­ful resources to the indi­vid­ual to help meet their estab­lished goal. The case man­ag­er may fol­low up to ensure that the indi­vid­ual is doing well, that any ser­vices they have ini­ti­at­ed for sup­port are going smooth­ly, or to pro­vide any addi­tion­al guid­ance or assis­tance as it aris­es. APS fol­low up and sup­port ser­vices are tai­lored to each indi­vid­ual client and their unique sit­u­a­tion, so fol­low up for each client will look a lit­tle different. 

Who Can I Con­tact if I Have More Questions?

KYC’s APS team can be reached by call­ing 847−524−8800 and dial­ing ​“2” in the phone menu. Our team can answer any addi­tion­al ques­tions that you may have.

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