Over the years, criminal legal terms, such as investigation, preponderance of evidence, and perpetrator have been injected into guidance policy and regulation. The new regulation introduces “perpetrator” into regulation for the first time and then establishes the right to review. The casework mission of APS is being confused and jeopardized by this change.

         The proposed regulation does not recognize that in APS cases of self-neglect, in which the “victim” is also the “perpetrator”, comprises more than 50% of APS situations.

         The proposed regulation will result in unintended consequences with “perpetrators” having access to presently confidential information. There may be an increase in risk for vulnerable adults, especially those adults who live with and/or are dependent upon the “perpetrators”.

     The new APS regulation changes the mission of APS from a casework focus of helping vulnerable adults to a focus upon “perpetrators”. Instead of going in a direction of further “criminalizing” Adult Protective Services, it is recommended that “perpetrators” and other like terms be removed from policy guidance and regulation.