Adult Protective Services: Professionals
These resources help professionals know how to respond to suspected abuse, financial exploitation, neglect, and self-neglect, and how to better protect elder adults and adults at risk.
Responding to suspected abuse, neglect, and exploitation
- What do you do if you suspect something is wrong? Elder Abuse/Adults at Risk/Adult Protective Services Guide for IRIS Consultants, P-00328 (PDF)—Information on how to protect vulnerable populations through awareness, identification, and reporting.
- Guardianship of Adults, P-20460 (PDF) —This handbook:
- Gives an overview of guardianship of adults in Wisconsin who meet the standards for a finding of incompetence.
- Outlines different ways of helping people make decisions.
- Suggests ways to tailor guardianships to each person's needs.
- Advance Directives Forms
- Supported Decision-Making Agreement
- Wisconsin Circuit Court Forms related to guardianship proceedings
Wisconsin law
Wisconsin statutes that define adult protective systems:
- §46.90: Elder Abuse Reporting System
- Chapter 54: Guardianships and Conservatorships
- Chapter 55: Protective Service System
The Chapter 55 Manual, P-20460A (PDF) has more information on these statutes.
According to Chapter 55, the agency must report on how it responds to each reported case of suspected abuse, financial exploitation, neglect, or self-neglect.
This information is collected by the Wisconsin Department of Health (DHS) using the Wisconsin Incident Tracking System (WITS).
More resources
- Visit our Adult Protective Services: Publications page to view all current SafetyNetWorks and Numbered Memos.
- If you have questions about policy or county elder adults/ agency operations, contact your regional area administration staff.