Audit of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs

This is a state performance audit of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs’ Protective Services Program, covering how elder-abuse reports were screened, investigated, documented, and reported from July 2015 through June 2017.

“In this performance audit, we examined EOEA’s process for screening, investigating, documenting, and reporting incidents of elder abuse.”

The Auditor reviewed whether EOEA was doing enough to reduce abuse risks for older adults and prevent abuse from happening again.

“Did EOEA effectively and efficiently administer its Protective Services Program to ensure that it achieved its stated objectives of mitigating or alleviating risks of abusive situations and preventing the reoccurrence of abuse of elderly people by doing the following?”

When serious abuse is not reported or properly documented, possible crimes against older adults may not be investigated or prosecuted.

“Without making referrals to DAs’ offices and adequately documenting referrals in APS, EOEA and its designated protective-service agencies (PSAs) cannot be certain that they have taken the necessary steps to ensure appropriate investigation and prosecution of alleged perpetrators of abuse and mitigation of risks of abuse.”

If you or someone you care about reports elder abuse, the system should document it correctly, investigate it when needed, and send serious cases to prosecutors.

“The law also states that if a PSA’s investigation determines that the elderly person is suffering abuse, the PSA must “evaluate the elderly person’s functional capacity, situation, and resources” before developing a service plan that addresses the provision of protective services and specific objectives to aid the elderly person and collaterals6 in preventing, eliminating, and/or alleviating the risks of abuse.”

The audit found three main problems: missed referrals to district attorneys, weak documentation of abuse reports, and weak controls over the abuse-report database.

“During our audit, we identified a number of issues with the way EOEA documented the processing of abuse reports in APS.”

The Auditor recommended written guidance, stronger monitoring, better documentation practices, improved user-access controls, and regular coordination with district attorneys.

“EOEA should establish monitoring controls to ensure that each person involved in the DA referral process complies with its policies and procedures for reporting incidents of alleged abuse to DAs’ offices.”

This matters because the audit reviewed thousands of screened-in abuse reports and found weaknesses in a program meant to protect older adults across Massachusetts.

“EOEA’s database system of record contains 10,435 unique reports of abuse that were screened in for investigation for fiscal year 2016 and 14,598 unique reports that were screened in during fiscal year 2017.”

APS means the Adult Protective Services system, the web database EOEA used to record abuse reports, case notes, referrals, and investigations.

“The Adult Protective Services (APS) system is a Web-based database system that EOEA uses as its system of record to document reports of alleged abuse of elderly people.”