The state agency that investigates reports of abuse or neglect of adults has closed the nearly 9,000 cases that remained open past the allotted time for closure.
The backlog occurred because workers were accepting all calls as cases and often skipped administrative steps necessary to officially close cases once investigated, said Marci Manley, an Arkansas Department of Human Services spokesman.
State law requires that caseworkers for the Aging, Adult and Behavioral Health Services Division close investigations within 60 days of receiving the first report. The division looks into allegations of physical abuse, sexual abuse, caregiver neglect, self-neglect and exploitation for adults who are unable to protect themselves.
Open cases had been building up for years, reaching a peak of 8,893 in December 2017. All of the cases are now scheduled for closure, according to a letter sent at the end of October to state legislators.
Mark White, deputy director for the division, sent the letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate committees that handle issues to do with aging -- Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, and Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff.
"I am pleased to report to you that [Adult Protective Services] staff have successfully eliminated the investigation closure backlog," White wrote. "As we discussed with the Committees on July 16, over the last several years [Adult Protective Services] had developed an investigation closure backlog that had grown progressively worse."
The House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs listened to a report on the now-resolved backlog Monday morning.
White told committee members that there were still 168 cases that needed further investigation. Staff members are still visiting those adults to make sure they are safe, he said.
"Even though the investigation was complete, we had some concerns about these individuals," White said.
The problem began years ago, when division leaders were concerned that employees were being "overly aggressive" in screening out complaints, Manley said. That resulted in a decision to accept all calls to create cases.
In 2015, the division got new leadership and started screening out calls again.
From July 1 to Sept. 30, state employees screened out about 60 percent, or 1,901, of the complaints they received. Calls to the hotline are screened out if they don't meet statutory criteria, Shannon Halijan, the director of Adult Protective Services, said in an interview earlier this year.
Halijan also said that she set out to educate mandated reporters about the requirements to call the hotline if they suspect abuse or neglect. There are 21 categories of mandated reporters, including doctors, coroners, firefighters and bankers.
"As community education has increased, that's naturally going to increase the number of cases that Arkansas has," she said. "And I think that community education piece was missing, prior to probably 2015."
From 2014 to 2016, total adult protective cases more than tripled, from 2,412 to 7,557, according to the state's data.
Between the increase in calls and the backlog of unclosed investigations, caseloads were high; at the beginning of this year, the average caseload was 235 cases per worker each month, according to Human Services Department data. Manley said that many of them were cases that had been investigated but not closed in the data system.
Now, workers' monthly caseloads range between 15 and 30. The National Adult Protective Services Association recommends at most 25 cases per month.
Efforts to close Arkansas cases began in March. The division refocused its efforts to start closing cases and learn more about what caseworkers could handle, Manley said.
In the summer, the division started reviewing cases to see which ones could be closed based on existing information on file, Manley added.
"I think this was something we tried to take an approach of trying to understand what the problem was and then adjusting, pulling [staff] from units in the agency to eliminate the backlog," she said.
Metro on 12/18/2018