I was preparing a home for a friend/client to receive some equipment and material to repair her home when adult protective service (APS) came to the door and asked to see my friend. I said I will check with her, that she was under heavy meds and was asleep. I went to get her. I got her up and took her into the living room and the worker had walked in and was searching the home. I did not even have time to get my friend dressed. Can APS just walk in without being invited?
You ask for ID.
You have every right to call the persons office to verify the employee.
And I would think if you are not POA, family member you should not answer any questions that would violate the person or the family privacy. HIPAA violation if you give any personal information to someone that does not have clearance
You ask for ID.
You have every right to call the persons office to verify the employee.
And I would think if you are not POA, family member you should not answer any questions that would violate the person or the family privacy. HIPAA violation if you give any personal information to someone that does not have clearance
I can see, however, if you answer the door and are sideswiped, so to speak by someone who is pretty quick to gain access.
A friend of mine has her 3 grandkids and she has been visited by CPS many times. She did say that once they came and she wasn't home and 2 of the kids were and the person just pawed through her stuff (this is acc. to the kids). Maybe CPS is different--it's kids and they are very at risk.
Next time (and this may be a warning to all of us!!) ask for ID and take a business card from the person. I don't think you 'have to' let them in--but it doesn't look good if you are not somewhat accessible.
My mother had APS come by a couple of times, neighbors had called on YB's hot tempered yelling--which was not directed at mother, but still.
Did this woman offer any ID? Was she carrying notebooks or anything in which she could take notes? And, although I hate to ask it, has anything been missing?
IF permission is refused, by the person whose house it is (even if that person is the subject of concern), then the worker may have to insist on the right of entry, with the backing of law enforcement if necessary. But only if!
We have a similar issue with reporting. There are certain safeguarding and welfare issues which, if they come to light, we must report; and we must report them with or without the person's agreement. But we'd much rather gain the agreement, and there is usually a way to achieve it - it only wants a little tact and consideration.
Barb raises an essential point about checking identity before granting access - a timely reminder, it's the sort of thing we all know we ought to do but...
I would call them and make sure it was actually APS. Did they show any sort of ID?
If it wasn't, file a report with your local police department right away.
APS probably do, depending on circumstances, have the legal right to insist on entry into a person's home. But the way you describe this situation, this is about codes of conduct rather than the law as such.
At the very top of the form we fill in at Every Single Visit, it reads, on the checklist:
"Consent gained for support (consider the client's mental capacity to consent): Y/N.
Details if consent could not be gained............................................................................"
Similarly, that worker from APS ought to have waited for your friend's explicit consent to enter the home, let alone to begin searching it.
Assist your friend to make a formal complaint. You can find out from APS themselves what the correct procedure is; and then the aim is for workers on that team to be reminded that there are protocols and they do need to be followed.
Consent needs to be given for:
entry into the home
any actions taken while in the home
recording of information
forwarding of information
When APS is investigating a concern, they do of course have various legal tools at their disposal simply because some of the people most at risk won't be able to give their consent whether through incapacity, coercion, illness, whatever. But in this case it seems there was nothing to stop the worker waiting a reasonable time for you to bring your friend in, and then asking your friend's permission to begin the visit. Plain disrespectful, I call it. I hope you get a satisfactory response and an apology on your friend's behalf.