The Social Worker as an Advocate in Adult Protective Services

Abstract

care themselves.3 During this en tire period the primary focus was on care of the person's property rather than on the care of the person or the enabling of that person to become self-sufficient. Allen, Ferster, and Weihofen reported that, as of the late 1960s, the law relating to incompe tence and guardianship was still pri marily focused on protection of prop erty.4 Even today, at least in the state of Iowa, the law defines much more clearly and specifically the powers, duties, and reporting requirements of the conservator (a person appointed to care for a person's property) than it does for those of the guardian (a person appointed to care for the per son, but not necessarily the property of that person). It was in the early 1950s that the Social Security Administration and Veterans Administration developed administrative procedures for the ap pointment of a representative payee, a result of these agencies' concerns over the increasing number of im paired adults unable to manage their monthly benefits. By the late 1950s a number of national agencies and organizations had expressed an inter est in adult protective services. Among these were the Social Security Ad ministration, the National Council on Aging, and the American Public Wel fare Association. The 1961 White