In 2014, Colorado’s Adult Protective Services implemented a statewide, electronic assessment tool that captures risk and safety data on older clients who are at risk of abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The assessment tool is designed to help guide service planning and monitor outcomes over time. This study aimed to validate the assessment procedures by analyzing retrospective assessment data for one year (n = 1,581 cases), surveying with case vignettes to determine reliability (n = 49 workers), and conducting focus groups on utility, feasibility, and areas for improvement (n = 42 workers). The assessment included 70 risk and safety factors across the areas of: physical functioning, environmental context, financial resources, mental health and cognition, medical issues, and support systems. Findings indicated ways revisions could minimize repetition, reflect better the scope of practice for adult protective service workers, and calculate valid total scores for monitoring changes over time. From the preliminary analysis, the scores tend to trend as expected with follow-up risk scores being lower than baseline risk scores. Similarly, follow-up safety scores are higher than baseline safety scores. Themes regarding areas for improvement include: (1) omitting risk factors that are not modifiable / not applicable from total score calculations; (2) including items regarding client refusal of services; (3) simplifying the mental health and cognition subscale; and (4) increasing training to decrease subjectivity. Implications from this study can highlight best practices in assessment procedures and how research-practice partnerships can be used to improve adult protective service response to elder maltreatment.
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