As an APS In-Home Caseworker, we investigate allegations of abuse, neglect and exploitation
of the elderly and disabled inside the home so we go out to the homes of the elderly and
disabled and we ensure their safety while living in the community.
Usually an allegation has been made by somebody in the community and we basically go in and
take a quick snapshot of what's going on in the house to see if the allegations have any
merit.
A case comes to our central intake line in Austin, the 1-800 number.
Once we receive the intake down to our local field office, we route the case out to a worker
who is assigned to that area.
They immediately start working on the case, making contact with the people who are involved
with the case.
The most common cases we deal with are self-physical neglect cases, cases where for some reason
the person is in the home and they are unable to meet their needs or they just need something
to help them out, then we go out and we try to assist them to the best of our ability
to alleviate their situation whatever it might be.
Insuring the safety of the elderly and disabled in the community can be a variety of things.
It's putting services in place, making sure that they have all the services that they
need to remain safely in their home.
Have you heard anything on the food stamp application?
Uh, they give us, first 30 would just be $51, now they give us $55.
That's more than you were receiving the first time, right?
And you completed the application for housing, right?
Yes ma'am.
Ok, and you turned it in?
Yes ma'am.
Have you heard anything?
No, they say they're going to take a while before they, before they get it.
With APS, you never know what to expect.
Today we're going to see a 50-year old male who has brain injury and as a result of that
he's having difficulty managing his own money, um, he is easily taken advantage of and therefore
people are coming at the beginning of the month and he's loaning them money leaving
himself in a state of neglect.
So tell me how you all are handling the finances right now?
Does he still have the card?
Yeah.
I'm going with him for making groceries.
Ok, so you're keeping the card?
Everything.
But he's actually using it when you go somewhere?
Yeah.
We spend together.
Allright.
Well then, I'll touch base with the doctor and the home health and then I'll give you
a call.
Ok.
It won't be until the beginning of next week because I'm going to be out making visits
today so I'll be able to sit down on Monday and make the phone calls.
When I first started this job, going to a residence that I had never been to before
was very nerve-racking.
I would sit in my car for possibly 10 minutes convincing myself to just go knock on the
door because the unknown was intimidating and made me nervous.
Over time, I've learned that you just have to be prepared and expect the unexpected and
just go in with an open mind and I think that's all you can do.
And I think that for a lot of the people who are out in the field, their biggest fear is
knocking on the door at times, you're walking into environments by yourself at times, you
don't have a gun, you don't have a badge, you don't always have backup and support right
there beside you and you're knocking on the door of a stranger's home.
You will run into hazardous and or risky situations, for example, dogs.
They can be little dogs or big dogs and they bite, dogs bite, so that can be an issue.
Sometimes you can run into hostile family members.
I've had several hoarding cases and they're probably the most difficult cases to work.
The people don't want you in their home, they're embarrassed by their homes, they just don't
want you there, they don't want your assistance and they have this really strong attachment
to their personal belongings that are in their home.
They need the assistance but they don't think they need the assistance, so they're very
very difficult cases to work.
I had one lady who her house was so filled with maps and newspapers and she was sleeping
outside on her back porch and so we went in and we cleaned her home, we placed her in
an assisted living facility while we were cleaning her home and she allowed us to do
that but six months later the home was back to what it had been before we had cleaned
it.
With this job I spend most of my days in the car either driving to a client's house or
documenting.
Most of my meals are eaten either in the car or in the parking lot while I'm documenting
so with this job you definitely need a reliable transportation.
It's not something you could take the bus to.
Some of the areas we work don't have bus routes, the bus doesn't go out that far.
This is definitely not a nine-to-five job.
Even if you shut down your computer at five o'clock, you're still thinking about the clients,
what you have to do tomorrow morning, where you ended your day, what you didn't get to
finish and then there's also those days that there's some emergency going on with the client
and you're working till six, seven o'clock.
I've done emergency removals where I've had to stay with the client at the hospital till
one in the morning.
Sometimes you're on call and you have to work some weekends and so with the amount of intakes
and clients they have coming in, with the workload they currently have, and the time
that they're allotted to complete it in, it gets demanding.
It does affect the family life because you can't plan things when you're on call if you
have vacation schedule.
Sometimes you're able to switch with your coworkers depending on what's going on but
usually if you're on call, you have to be on call.
You have to be willing to change your plans at any moment, especially, you know, first
thing in the morning, you see what cases came in overnight, you know, you map it out.
You're like, ok, I'm going to get these these these this done this done and then within
two hours that could be different.
This is a very stressful job.
You ultimately are holding other people's lives in your hands some days in making the
decision should they remain in the community, should they be placed in a facility, can you
put enough services in place for them to remain safely in the community?
And not only that, but you don't just have one client, you have 35 clients and so ensuring
all of their safety at the same time can be very very stressful.
I care very much about my clients and so I find myself being emotionally attached sometimes
so that can cause even more stress because then you're worried about what's going to
happen to them or how you're going to resolve the situation and it is hard to shut that
off at five o'clock when you're supposed to be done for the day.
I think at any given time, you have those cases that really weigh heavy on you and that
you feel like you tried everything you possibly could and you still, the outcome, you know,
wasn't what you wanted or the client just refused assistance and it's hard, you carry
that with you, you do, you have a sense of "you failed the client" even though you know
in your heart you tried everything possible.
I have a case that sticks in my mind.
The gentleman in his early 70s living on a house that had been in his family since the
early 1900s, um, they had discovered like oil and uranium.
His wife had passed away.
He lived on the property with his son who was IDD and his caretaker.
Now the reason this case sticks in my head is that the conditions of the home and the
property were probably the worst I've ever seen, just horrible.
Horrible.
The house had not been cleaned since probably the mid 80s.
He finally agreed to go to the hospital and, you know, I followed the ambulance back to
the hospital and he wanted ice cream and I went and got him some ice cream.
I just remember how grateful he was, that how persistent I was.
He ended up passing away but it's just one of those things where, you
know I don't know what it is, I could, I knew he needed the help and I knew that his son,
through no fault of his own, that he was just so used to being stubborn and running people
off and I would not let him run me off.
Before you start carrying the caseload of Adult Protective Services, we send you through
a litany of trainings including being active in the community with completing shadow activities
or activities with tenured workers.
You get a mixture of computer-based trainings, classroom trainings, on-the-job trainings
with tenured workers and then some independent training by yourself where you actually go
and take some cases but throughout that process you always have support of the more tenured
staff, your field training staff, your supervisors, and your peers.
That team support is vital, especially as a new employee.
I've been here almost a year and I still am constantly depending on my teammates just
to answer questions, to run past ideas.
Sometimes we're in situations that are taking all day and we've got something else that
needs to be done and it's really nice to be able to say, "hey, can somebody make this
phone call for me?", or, you know, and in return when somebody needs that, you know,
you've got to be able to give that back but I could say that that's definitely an important
part of this job and I don't know that I'd be successful without it.
I turn to my coworkers.
I turn to the people who understand the job that I do and have had those same days that
I have and have had those same bad outcomes and I turn to them.
I call them and I talk it out with them and they give me words of encouragement or support
and them I'm able to move on.
No, this job is not for just anybody.
You have to be compassionate.
You have to be flexible.
You have to be amenable to change.
Things can change in a heartbeat and you have to be ready to go at any given moment.
You have to be highly organized and highly motivated.
You have to be a person who knows and can work well independently and be willing to
adjust with changing situations.
With these cases, at one minute someone is perfectly fine and we think that we put things
in place to make sure they're safe and they're secure and in the next moment, things might
fall through and you have to be able to adjust with that.
I think that patience is another really important thing.
Again, because you have to be able to, you know, take time sometimes for these people
and listen to them.
Listen to their stories.
Listen to what's going on so that you can build that rapport.
I definitely think it's important that you, you know, again are able to handle the stress
but also have that open heart because that really helps you to be successful.
You have to be able to remain kind of on an even keel with your emotions and your thoughts.
You can't be a person who goes with the ups and downs because there's a lot of ups and
downs.
To me, this goes back to being able to being personable and that sense of being able to
go up to a total stranger's door, knock on the door and say hello and somehow get yourself
inside.
If the idea of going by yourself scares you, then it's probably not a good fit.
This job is right for me because I like to meet people.
I like to help people.
I like the freedom to schedule my day the way I'd like to.
I'd like actually being involved with making sure that somebody's safe and protected.
I think for me, it is that overall sense of satisfaction when you can make a difference,
when you've changed somebody's life, when you've got them out of that predicament that
maybe they've been in for a very long time because they don't have that support or nobody
knew what was going on.
Just that acknowledgement that I can see that smile when I go to visit them that last time
or, you know, the recognition that they know we have helped them.
That wipes away, you know, all the negativity and the frustration and the long hours because
you really feel like I have made a difference.
I have changed someone's life and for me, that's what keeps me going and keeps me, you
know, driving and doing all the cases and doing what we need to.
I guess I can't say it enough that, you know, it can't be just a paycheck.
You have to want to help the elderly and disabled and you have to know that every day is going
to be a challenge and some days more challenging than others and you learn as you go, um, but
at the end of the job is very rewarding when you make a difference in somebody's life or
you help them and there's going to be days when you're very frustrated and then the next
day you're gonna do something and the client's going to call you and thank you and it's gonna
make all the difference in the world.
So, while the job can be very frustrating and challenging, it's also very self-rewarding
to know that you're helping somebody.