REGIONAL SUCCESS STORIES

REGION 1

REGION 2

A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION PROTECTS AN ALLEGED VICTIM FROM FURTHER FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION

Due to the perseverance of a Region 1 investigator, an allegation of financial exploitation that spanned over 3 years was presented before the regional Investigative Review Team who concurred with the recommendation to substantiate against two alleged perpetrators. Our 64-year-old vulnerable adult experienced an acute medical crisis that resulted in admission to a hospital and then long-term into a nursing facility where she did not have access to her bank account and trusted her family to oversee paying her expenses. The alleged victim’s son and daughter-in-law used their position of trust and deception to improperly spend almost $70,000 of the alleged victim’s money to purchase items and pay for personal expenses for themselves and their family.

The investigator did a fantastic job of thoroughly investigating the allegation while coordinating with community partners to ensure the protection of the vulnerable adult through guardianship, care services, and law enforcement. The money taken from the alleged victim is currently being repaid to her.

A FEEL GOOD CAT STORY

During the month of January 2022, investigator Brandon Lodge was assigned an intake of self-neglect with the client residing in a mobile home and reported to have 15 cats that resided in the home with her, and she was physically unable to care for herself or her cats. She had recently moved to this home from a much larger home after the loss of her mother. She has physical limitations and was unable to take care of and clean up after all the cats, leaving the home full of cat waste and unsanitary. She often chose to crawl on the floor around her

REGIONAL

SUCCESS STORIES

home instead of using her wheelchair. She reported that her preference is to crawl around as she was able to get places quicker that way. However, she was often navigating through these unsanitary conditions on her hands and knees. She doesn’t have a lot of natural supports and was feeling overwhelmed by the number of cats in her little residence. She also cannot drive so she was unable to drop the cats off at shelters even if she was willing to part with them.

While interviewing her, Brandon was able to build rapport with her about the number of cats in her home and inquired if she would like assistance with rehoming some of them. She agreed with rehoming 11 of the 15 cats, however she felt she could keep the 4 oldest cats that were already fixed and did not want to separate from them.

Knowing that one of our APS supervisors is a foster parent for kittens, Brandon and supervisor Andrea Thompson, reached out to supervisor Kelly Machnik during the visit, and inquired if there were any foster homes in our area willing to pick up some cats to rehome. Within an hour Kelly was able to reach out to her foster network and received a response from a foster home.

The client consented to speaking with this foster home and by the end of that day the foster home was able to successfully pick up 6 cats/kittens (left) from the home. The client is amenable to having the other 5 cats rehomed, but this was a good start to lowering her stress and decreasing the amount of waste that occurs from having such a large number of cats in the home. She seems very appreciative for the swift response and action in this case and continues to work with our APS team on cleaning up her living environment, gaining access to more suitable equipment and other protective services.