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Extracted from Consolidated Report
This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.
Tuolumne County Grand Jury
• 2021-2022
County of Tuolumne Grand Jury 12855 Justice Center Drive*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 7 findings
F1
APS does not have enough resources or staff to properly assess, investigate, and address cases putting our vulnerable residents at risk for elder abuse.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
The management of HHSA, through the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors, should advocate for increased funding from federal and state resources. The State of California recently announced a $31 billion budget surplus. The time seems right to aggressively seek additional funding. Increased staffing should be a priority to address the previous staff cuts that were not replaced. The Grand Jury recommends that positions to be added should include at least one full time social worker for APS. This should be completed by the end of the calendar year 2022. (F1)
F2
The salaries of the key roles or positions in APS are not competitive with counties surrounding Tuolumne County impacting staff recruitment and morale.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The Grand Jury recommends that the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors consider an off-cycle increase in the pay level of the respective social services staff. It is recommended that a class and compensation study be performed of the parity of salaries be completed and the salary adjustments made before the end of the calendar year 2022. (F2)
F3
There are limited training opportunities for both new and existing staff in the APS Department stunting staff advancement and impacting work-flow.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The Grand Jury recommends that APS should provide formalized training for all new social services staff. This should include training on all policies and procedures. Continuing education should be provided for established employees. If on-line training is appropriate, time and resources should be provided to the employees during regular work hours. (F3)
F4
There is a lack of community awareness and knowledge regarding the role of APS. There is also a misunderstanding by the public and other county agencies about that role. It is often thought that APS is trying to remove seniors from their homes when in truth APS tries to connect seniors to the proper resources that will allow them to stay in their homes.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
APS should take the lead to develop a formalized community approach to public awareness, prevention, and education of elder abuse. The Grand Jury recommends that the HHSA create a temporary position or hire an independent contractor as a Community Awareness and Outreach Analyst to address the apparent lack of community awareness. This individual should analyze the need for outreach and training, and create a program of written and social media outreach to inform the public and community at large about elder abuse and the services available to aid and protect seniors over 65 in need of help. The person hired should have a background in marketing, skills in communication, and social media marketing, and be able to set up an ongoing maintenance system to annually monitor the effectiveness of the efforts. (F4)
F5
The organizations and agencies that interact with older residents, and/or where one might expect to find information about APS, are almost completely lacking the knowledge of the County's APS department. Opportunities for informing and/or connecting residents with vital services are lost.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
APS should actively contact the agencies where information about the role of APS would be of value. APS should request of these organizations that the APS brochure be prominently placed in the lobby, reception area, or bulletin board. APS should educate the management of these agencies about the mission of APS. The Community Awareness and Outreach Analyst should be directed to implement these recommendations. (F5)
F6
Mandated Reporters are not consistently aware of their responsibilities as such potentially causing an under-reporting of elder abuse cases.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
The Grand Jury Recommends that APS should spearhead a campaign to educate Mandated Reporters regarding the methods to recognize and report suspicions of elder abuse. The Community Awareness and Outreach Analyst should be directed to implement this recommendation. (F6) Commendation
F7
APS provides an admirable service to the senior and dependent residents of Tuolumne County. The HHSA staff is dedicated and committed to serving APS. Often when associates do leave APS, they stay within the department to continue to serve the community. Recommendations
No recommendations for this finding
Commendations 1
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CM1 Page 17C 1. The Grand Jury is delighted to report that itfound the entire staff and leadership of APS give 100% of themselves to making a difference in the lives of the seniors in Tuolumne County. They should be applauded for their understanding, commitment, hard work, and sincere loving care they are giving to our community.The APS system for intake, referral, and case management is well understood by the employees in each of their individual roles to process and protect elders in need of help. 17 REQUESTED RESPONSES
No Responses Found 3
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
County of Tuolumne
Agency
Tuolumne County
County
Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors
Elected County Office
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.