State to provide additional funding to Indiana Adult Protective Services

State officials announced Thursday that they will provide additional funding to the system responsible for protecting Indiana's most vulnerable adults.

Earlier this year, an IndyStar investigation revealed that Indiana Adult Protective Services is severely understaffed, underfunded and ill-equipped to handle the roughly 40,000 calls it receives each year. Thousands of adults are exposed to horrific abuse and neglect, only to be left at risk because of an APS system that relies on well-intentioned but overwhelmed investigators.

On Thursday, Sen. Luke Kenley said the state will spend about $1.1 million now — before next year's budget session — so APS can hire 18 more full-time investigators. Currently, the equivalent of 30 full-time investigators struggle to manage cases for the entire state.

APS investigates allegations of abuse, neglect and exploitation against adults who can’t take care of themselves because of dementia, mental illnesses, developmental or physical disabilities or some other impairment. The number of cases, particularly those involving financial exploitation, has been rising with Indiana's aging population.

"We've just got a larger number of people exposed to this kind of problem," said Kenley, R-Noblesville.

State officials' announcement came the day after IndyStar contacted legislators and the governor's office with questions about when they learned of problems with APS.

Earlier this year, the legislature responded to concerns about the agency by passing Senate Bill 192. It would require the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to study the APS program with the goal of determining proper funding and staffing levels next year. The bill, which heads to Gov. Mike Pence for his consideration, essentially would require FSSA to do what it already is doing: study the problem.

“It’s important to study this issue first to ensure that the legislature and other state leaders know exactly what’s needed," Sen. Michael Crider said in a statement. "This is a good step toward figuring out how many employees need to be hired, more efficient ways of investigating these cases and how to properly fund Adult Protective Services.”

At the time, the governor's office said it was aware of the concerns about APS, and that FSSA would continue to work on a plan to improve it, including a caseload study.

“Study,” former APS Director Patrick Calkins said. “How many times do you have to do it? Why does it take a study to find out an answer that any layman would come to that conclusion? Why kick the can down the road again?"

Records obtained by IndyStar indicate Calkins, who retired in 2014, had warned legislators and his bosses at FSSA about the funding shortages as early as 2010.

At the time, he said each investigator was handling more than 160 cases. He reiterated that concern in 2011, when investigators were juggling roughly 179 cases at a time.

"The dedication of our field investigators is evidenced by their ability to continually operate within an environment where resources are stretched to the point where the probability of a program failure, which would have tragic consequences for an Indiana citizen and their family, exists each day," Calkins wrote in 2011.

Two years later, Shirley Jarrett was dead. The IndyStar investigation revealed that twice APS had received reports that Jarrett, who had suffered a stroke and been diagnosed with dementia, was being abused. But the agency never made contact with her. The 76-year-old was later rushed to the hospital with severe injuries from which she never recovered.

In 2014, FSSA, which funds APS, described the program as “woefully” underfunded and “a day away from exploding.”

How the state failed to protect Shirley Jarrett

That same year, the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council said it needed to more than quadruple the $2.8 million APS budget to properly manage the caseloads. Though FSSA funds the APS program, the state contracts with 18 county prosecutors to run it.

Yet, instead of asking for more money, and instead of seeking major reforms, FSSA officials opted to study the matter last year. The agency found about $450,000 in its existing budget to supplement APS in the short term while it created across-the-board standards and studied staff caseloads.

Kenley said he met with FSSA officials and the Prosecuting Attorneys Council after IndyStar's investigation was published in January.

State officials and prosecutors agreed to the additional funding while they continue to analyze investigators' caseloads and the structure of the program. FSSA will find the money in its own budget, Kenley said.

"We’re very happy," said Suzanne O’Malley, deputy director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council. "If we can ease the burden right now, we’re very supportive of that."

When questioned this week, Pence's office told IndyStar it had reached an agreement with Kenley and prosecutors to find short-term funding for the agency. “Governor Pence takes the health and well-being of our most vulnerable Hoosiers very seriously," Kara Brooks, the governor's spokeswoman, said via email.

Call IndyStar reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at (317) 444-6135. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyMarisaK.

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