Director’s Welcome

FEATURES | >>

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Introducing the Critical Incident Stress Management Team

Meet our CISM Team and learn about the great work they are doing

Getting to Know One Another: Victoria Gawlik Morse

Get to know our amazing Grant Director and the unique skills and experience she brings to the team

Headquarters Spotlight: Arielle Finney

Meet the APS Senior Policy Advisor and see how her team’s work contributes to the success of our mission

Adult Protective Services

is dedicated to serving vulnerable adults. We investigate reports about abuse, abandonment, neglect, exploitation and self-neglect of vulnerable adults in Washington State. We collaborate with other agencies to offer protective services as needed. Our goal is to promote lives free of harm while respecting individual choice.

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DEPARTMENTS | >>

2 Director’s Welcome

Remembering our accomplishments in 2022, and a look at our plans for 2023

3 Deputy Director’s Welcome

Thanking the APS workforce, and reaffirming our dedication to our clients

4 EDAI Corner

The ALTSA team invites you to “zone in” on Pro-Equity Anti-Racism

5 Employee Spotlight

Sharing staff achievements and excellence across Washington

7 Updates & Information

11 Regional Success Stories

Learn how APS is transforming lives throughout the State

16 Coffee Break With Kathy

Find out about quarterly staff updates from APS Director Kathy Morgan

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15 Happy New Year!

First, I want to acknowledge the challenges faced in 2022 and share with you some of the initiatives that were focused on throughout the year and some exciting things to look forward to in 2023.

In 2022, we focused efforts on retention and recruitment, including; working with human resources to pilot modified required education/experience for the social services class to equivalent education/experience which increased our candidate pools; utilizing region-wide single postings to fill multiple positions; hiring administrative staff under the grant to support regional hiring activities, creating intraining units which allowed for the ability to hire individuals in at the SSS1 and SSS2 level; creating case-aid positions to support investigative work; adjustments to the training calendars for staff academy, supervisory academy, forensic interviewing; finalizing a memorandum of understanding with labor for short-term compensation of supervisors supporting investigation activities; and successful bargaining proposals. In addition, we hired a workforce development specialist under our grant to continue focus on recruitment, retention and hiring activities.

With these efforts, and many others, we have seen a decrease in our vacancies across the state, with the ability to fill positions more quickly. In many areas we are fully staffed, and our most recent statewide vacancy rate average is slightly below twenty-percent (20%), with some areas below fourpercent (4%), well below the forty-percent (40%) experienced earlier in the year.

We continue to support telework through providing technology enhancements and equipment such as portable scanners, voice to text through iPhones and laptops, TIVA system enhancements, resource maps, and much more.

In addition, we successfully procured a contract with Public Consulting Group (PCG) to assist in closing investigations aged over 90 days. The project goal included reducing high caseloads and eliminating caseloads for non-case carrying positions.

In early spring myself and the deputy director conducted 16 staff listening sessions across the state to hear directly from you on ways that we could continue to improve. We also recently concluded our 2022 all staff roadshows to share information, answer questions, and provide updates on important initiatives. APS practices, workload, and rollback of the temporary contingency plan. Some recommendations were immediately implemented such as modification and continuation of the temporary emergency contingency plan; reviewing chapter for policy versus procedure; and review of intake practices for consistency. Other recommendations are currently being reviewed and discussed, such as changes to the TIVA assignment tool and other ideas generated by staff will be incorporated into upcoming workgroups.

In 2023, we have workgroups planned to focus on recommendations generated through the workload workgroup, prior listening sessions, and recent roadshows. These recommendations will be utilized as a foundation for discussions. Workgroups that have been scheduled include Policy - Intake and Investigation Workgroup, TIVA2 System Enhancements Workgroup, APS Academy Redesign Workgroup, and Core Competencies, Hiring and Recruitment Workgroup, to name a few. These workgroups will conduct critical work for applying these ideas into practice. In the future we plan to convene a focus group to look at self-neglect and recommendations from the overall program evaluation by UW when complete.

Ideas that are not addressed through a particular workgroup or other project will be further evaluated for opportunities to incorporate into APS practice. We will continue to highlight these ideas in ongoing discussions and communications.

In early December your leadership gathered for a full day workshop to share accomplishments and set goals for 2023. Those will be shared with you at upcoming discussions and in future magazine editions.

To view a list of some of the accomplishments for 2022, click the link below:

2022 APS ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Kathy Morgan

is the director of Washington’s Adult Protective Services