A collaboration between adult protective services and forensic accounting examiners to investigate complex financial exploitation: formative evaluation findings.

Financial exploitation (FE) is one of the most common reports to Adult Protective Services (APS) and the cases are often complex. Consequently, APS caseworkers report FE investigations to be among the most difficult while simultaneously reporting low confidence in productive outcomes for these investigations. This necessitates finding ways to support APS FE investigations. This paper describes the structure, process, and formative findings of a collaboration between forensic accounting examiners and APS workers to investigate complex cases of FE. Among the 77 FE cases completed, forensic examiners reviewed multiple years of financial records which included over 101,000 transactions, totaling over $213,000,000.00 in finances, and identified over $8,000,000 in questionable activity. Scores on the 8-item Client Satisfaction Questionnaire were high indicating high program satisfaction by APS workers, subject matter experts, and forensic examiners. These findings support the feasibility and acceptability of forensic accounting and APS collaborations to investigate complex cases of FE.

Capacity evaluations for adult protective services: videoconference or in-person interviews.

The Geriatrician clinicians of the Texas Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Institute - Forensic Assessment Center Network (TEAM-FACN) in Houston, have many years of experience providing capacity assessment services for Adult Protective Services (APS) and Texas courts. A process has developed which is efficient, consistent, and evidence-informed. In the last two years, telecommunication has been added to this process to conduct assessments of APS clients in areas of Texas remote from the Houston area. Of the 545 capacity assessments TEAM-FACN has completed across the state of Texas over the first two years of adding telecommunication, 211 (39%) were conducted with in-person interviews and 334 (61%) were conducted using videoconference interviews. APS and the courts in remote areas of Texas have embraced the use of the videoconference assisted capacity assessments. This article describes this evidence-informed process and how telecommunication technology is incorporated to expand the reach of the service.