1. Does your state Lifespan Respite program, respite coalition, or respite service/program collaborate with your state's Adult Protective Services (APS) Program? 

The Oklahoma Lifespan Respite program and APS are within the same division at Oklahoma Human Services. This provides for a natural collaboration between the programs. The statewide Lifespan Respite Caregiver Coalition does not currently have a representative from APS. A special invitation is being developed to invite APS employees to become valued partners.

1. If you do, what have you learned about supporting family caregivers who may have interfaced with APS? 

We have learned that the family caregivers from APS are at higher risk with more immediate needs.

1. Does your state APS provide or arrange for respite care and see the value it provides to family caregivers?

Most APS staff do understand the value of respite, make referrals, and educate families about the importance of respite. To assure APS staff understand the importance of respite, the training mentioned below will be provided and respite information will be added to the APS New Worker Academy.

1. If you wanted APS to know how to provide respite care for the vulnerable adult population and their family caregivers, how might you suggest they accomplish this? 

The Lifespan Respite program and APS staff will be providing cross training for each program. The Lifespan Respite program will first provide a virtual training to the APS staff on what respite is, why it is important, who can apply, etc. as soon as possible. APS staff will then provide a similar training to the Lifespan Respite staff. APS will also have an opportunity to train the Caregiver Coalition members at one of the quarterly meetings.   

1. If you assess family caregivers for potential neglect, what questions do you ask?  

The Lifespan Respite program does assess family caregivers for potential neglect. When working with family caregivers, the families are asked if they are involved with child welfare services, as well as, household size, income, food insecurities, and shelter needs.

Thank you,

Ronelle Baker | Programs Supervisor

Community Living, Aging and Protective Services

Lifespan Respite Program

405.985.9560

ronelle.baker@okdhs.org

www.OKDHS.org

from the Idaho Caregiver Alliance:

1.      Does your state Lifespan Respite program, respite coalition, or respite service/program collaborate with your state's Adult Protective Services (APS) Program? Yes. The ICOA director and other staff, including the APS Coordinator, are on the emailing list of the Idaho Caregiver Alliance; those representatives regularly attend ICA meetings. The ICA also hosts the Justice Alliance for Vulnerable Adults (JAVA), a coalition of advocates, providers, Adult Protection staff, and others who meet monthly to learn about programs and services that impact vulnerable adults. JAVA and the ICA are also working with ICOA and the APS program on a conference in mid-September to share adult protection information and launch a remodeled APS system. In that enhanced and expanded system, the Family Caregiver Navigator program, a project of the Idaho Caregiver Alliance, is being folded into the APS process.

2.      If you do, what have you learned about supporting family caregivers who may have interfaced with APS? We will know more when the above referenced process is underway, starting this fall. What we do know is that family caregivers are almost always impacted in some way. We suspect that by providing more training, information and support to family caregivers, that may serve as an intervention that would mitigate some adult protection incidents.

3.      Does your state APS provide or arrange for respite care and see the value it provides to family caregivers? Our Area Agencies on Aging provide respite care to qualifying individuals and families. More recently a consumer-directed model of respite care is being offered, primarily to rural residents who may not have access to paid respite providers. It is my understanding that if respite care is indicated as a need in the process of an adult protection report, that the referral would be made. 

4.      If you wanted APS to know how to provide respite care for the vulnerable adult population and their family caregivers, how might you suggest they accomplish this? By using some of the above strategies and partnerships as well as referring people to the range of training modules on the ICOA and ICA websites; one of those might include Powerful Tools for Caregivers, an evidence-based 6-part training course to increase family caregiver resilience.

5.      If you assess family caregivers for potential neglect, what questions do you ask?  The Family Caregiver Navigator may have a call from a family caregiver and become aware of the potential (or perhaps actual) neglect, exploitation or abuse and would refer to APS as appropriate. The questions used in the assessment of caregivers can reveal these indicators. Those questions are part of the TCare platform that the FCN is using and are proprietary. I am unfamiliar with the questions specifically asked by APS staff but am including the Idaho APS coordinator on this email for her to add to and clarify any of my response.