{"id":9911,"date":"2019-03-01T18:46:57","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T18:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9911"},"modified":"2019-03-01T18:46:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T18:46:57","slug":"calls-to-boost-protection-for-older-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9911","title":{"rendered":"Calls to Boost Protection for Older Texans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thousands of older Texans are victims of abuse, neglect or financial exploitation each year. Photo: sabinevanerp\/Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mary Kuhlman<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0The number of Texans age 65 and over is expected to double by 2030, and advocacy groups say increased investments by the state would help ensure they are protected from exploitation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s estimated that older adults in the U.S. are exploited for tens of billions of dollars each year. Adult Protective Services is Texas\u2019 \u201ctop cop\u201d for investigating these crimes, as well as cases of abuse and neglect.<\/p>\n

However, Tim Morstad, associate state director of AARP Texas, contends state APS employees are overworked and underpaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdult Protective Services needs fairly compensated caseworkers and investigators who have reasonable caseloads so they can go out and make sure that older Texans are being treated fairly,\u201d Morstad said.<\/p>\n

Agency leaders, as well as advocacy groups like AARP, are asking state lawmakers to provide about $17 million for APS this legislative session, to be used to increase pay and help retain staff. APS investigated more than 51,000 confirmed cases of abuse, neglect or exploitation in fiscal year 2017.<\/p>\n

Morstad explained that two years ago,\u00a0lawmakers addressed<\/a>\u00a0a similar funding crisis at Child Protective Services and increased its funding. According to Morstad, those caseworkers now earn about $12,000 more each year than APS employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as that pay increase went into effect, there was a significant uptick in the turnover rate at Adult Protective Services. And we know where they\u2019re going,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re going across the hall in the same agency to get paid more to perform a similar function.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 2017 state legislative session, the House approved a $10 million funding boost for APS, but the Senate did not agree. Morstad noted the problems at the agency have only grown since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe $17.2 million is a small fraction of the money that\u2019s available to the Legislature,\u201d he said. \u201cThe state is in a much better fiscal position than it was two, four or even six years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said after the pay increase for Child Protective Services, caseworker turnover was cut nearly in half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mary Kuhlman AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0The number of Texans age 65 and over is expected to double by 2030, and advocacy groups say increased investments by the state would help ensure they are protected from exploitation. It\u2019s estimated that older adults in the U.S. are exploited for tens of billions of dollars each year. Adult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9912,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions\/9912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}