Calling Adult Protective Services: What to Say

Why this matters

Most techs who decide a situation deserves a call to adult protective services never make it, and the reason is rarely indifference. It is not knowing what the intake worker will ask, worrying about saying something wrong about a family, and assuming a report needs proof. It does not. A report is a description of what you saw, handed to people whose job is to find out the rest. Done well, it takes about fifteen minutes and gives the agency something it can act on. Done badly, with conclusions instead of observations, it gets screened out or turns into a story about you.

Whether you should call at all, and whether your state makes you, is a separate question. See related: What a Tech Can and Cannot Do About a Welfare Concern. This article starts at the moment you have decided to call.

What adult protective services is, and what it is not

Adult protective services (APS) is a state or county agency that investigates reports of abuse, neglect, self-neglect and financial exploitation of older adults and adults with disabilities. It is run under state law, so the age threshold (often 60 or 65), the categories it accepts and its response times are set state by state. The federal layer funds and guides it but does not run your local office.

Three limits shape what you say:

• APS is not an emergency service. If someone is in danger right now (no heat and a confused, shivering person, an injury, someone threatening them), you call 911 first and APS afterwards.
• APS mostly does not cover licensed facilities. In many states a concern inside a nursing home or assisted living building goes to the state long-term care ombudsman or the licensing agency instead. Ask the intake worker if you are unsure; they will route you.
• APS cannot force help on an adult who has capacity. A competent adult may refuse services. That is why your description of what the person could and could not do matters more than your opinion of their choices.

The steps

1. Decide whether this is a 911 call first. Ask one question: would waiting until tomorrow risk serious harm tonight? A house at 50 F with an 84-year-old who cannot get out of a chair, a fresh injury, or a person afraid to be left with someone in the house all answer yes. If it is yes, call 911 from where you stand and mention the APS concern to the responders. Skip this and you route an emergency into a queue that may not open the file for a day.

2. Leave the house and call from somewhere private. The truck, around the corner, the office. Never make the call within earshot of the customer or of anyone you think may be causing the harm. A caregiver who overhears may cut off access to the person, coach them, or retaliate, and your own safety comes before the report. If leaving means walking past the person you are worried about, finish the work order, leave the normal way and call from the road.

3. Write down what you saw before you dial. Five minutes, on paper or in a note on your phone, while it is fresh: date and time on site, who was there, the conditions you observed, anything the customer said in their own words, and anything you did (restored heat, set a thermostat). Intake workers ask in a structured order and nerves make people forget the best detail. Without notes you will remember the smell and forget the date on the empty pill bottle.

4. Find the right number. Search your state name plus "adult protective services report" or call the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116, the federally funded referral line, which will give you the local intake number. Many states also take online reports for non-urgent concerns. If the person lives in a licensed facility, ask for the long-term care ombudsman instead (step 4 is where most misrouted reports go wrong).

5. Give the intake worker what they ask for, in their order. Expect, roughly:

• the person's name, address, approximate age, and how to get in (gate code, dogs, which door);
• what you saw and when;
• whether anyone else lives there or provides care, and their names if you know them;
• whether the person seemed able to understand their situation and make decisions;
• whether there is immediate danger;
• your name, relationship and a callback number.

You do not need every answer. "I don't know" is a complete answer and is better than a guess.

6. Describe, do not conclude. Say what you saw, heard and smelled. Leave the labels (neglect, abuse, dementia) to the investigator. "The son is neglecting her" invites an argument about the son. "The thermostat was at 52 F, she told me she had not eaten since Saturday, and the bedding was soaked with urine" invites a visit. Quote the customer exactly where you can; a direct quote is evidence, a paraphrase is your interpretation.

7. Ask what happens next and get a reference number. Ask whether the report was accepted, what priority it was given if they will say, and for a report or intake number. Write it on your notes. That number is what lets you add information later without starting over.

8. Record it in the shop, briefly and in the right place. Tell your office manager or owner the call was made. Put a short factual note where only management can see it, not in the customer's general job notes that every dispatcher reads. Include date, time, reference number and the facts you reported, nothing more. See related: Writing a Safety Flag on a Customer Record Without Defaming Them.

9. Follow up only with new information, and do not investigate. If you go back and something has changed, call the intake line with your reference number. Do not question neighbors, photograph the inside of the house beyond the equipment you serviced, or confront the family. Each of those can compromise the investigation and some put you at risk.

The call itself

This is the case below, at about minute three of the call, from the truck parked a block away.

INTAKE: What did you see that concerned you?
TECH:   I was there about two hours on a no-heat call.
        Thermostat read 52. The furnace had been out,
        she said, "since my son left on Friday."
INTAKE: Is she alone?
TECH:   Yes. She said he usually comes daily. She
        walked with a walker and stopped twice to rest
        crossing the kitchen.
INTAKE: Anything about food or medicine?
TECH:   The fridge had milk and condiments, nothing
        else. Two pill bottles on the counter, both
        empty, fill dates in August.
INTAKE: Did she seem confused?
TECH:   She knew the date and my company name. She
        asked me three times when her son was coming.
INTAKE: Is she safe tonight?
TECH:   Heat is back on, house was 61 when I left.
        She has a phone. I don't think it's a 911
        right now, but I would not want it to wait
        past tomorrow.

Notice what the tech does not say: that the son is negligent, that she has dementia, or that she should not live alone. Every sentence is something the tech observed, and the last answer gives the worker exactly what they need to set priority.

Worked example, start to finish

The visit. A Tuesday in late October, outdoor 38 F. The customer is 84 and lives alone in a single-story house. The furnace's hot surface ignitor has failed; the tech replaces it and the system lights. The house was 52 F on arrival.

What the tech noticed while working. Strong urine odor in the hallway. Two empty prescription bottles dated eight and nine weeks earlier. A refrigerator with almost no food. The customer saying her son "handles everything" and has not been by in four days. She was oriented to the date but asked the same question three times in an hour.

Step 1 answered. Heat was restored, the house reached 61 F within ninety minutes, she has a working phone, and there was no injury or threat. Serious harm tonight looked unlikely, so this was an APS call rather than a 911 call. Had the furnace needed a part not on the truck and the house stayed at 52 F, the answer flips: an 84-year-old in a 52 F house overnight is a hypothermia risk, and that is 911 or a family member who can take her somewhere warm now.

Steps 2 to 4. The tech finished the ticket, told the customer the furnace was running, and left the normal way. Notes written in the truck took six minutes. A search for the state hotline found the number in under a minute.

Steps 5 to 7. The call took about fourteen minutes. The tech did not know the son's full name or phone number and said so. The worker accepted the report and gave a reference number. She would not say what priority it was given, which is normal; many states do not share it.

Step 8. A two-line note went to the owner with the reference number. The job notes say only "ignitor replaced, system tested, house 61 F at departure."

What happened next. Nothing the shop heard about, for six weeks. Then the son called to book a maintenance visit and mentioned that a county worker had arranged meal delivery and a home health aide. The tech never learned more, and should not expect to.

Confidentiality, immunity and what you will not be told

State laws generally keep the reporter's identity confidential, and nearly all of them protect a person who reports in good faith from civil or criminal liability for making the report. The protection usually attaches to good faith, not to being right: a report that turns out to be unfounded is still protected if you described honestly what you saw. A report made to settle a billing dispute is not good faith, and some states penalize knowingly false reports.

Many states allow anonymous reports, but an anonymous report cannot be followed up and is often weaker for it. Giving your name and asking that it be kept confidential is usually the better choice.

You will probably not be told the outcome. APS investigations are confidential to protect the adult. Silence after a report is not evidence nothing happened.

This is not legal advice. Whether you are a mandated reporter, how quickly you must report, and what protection applies all depend on your state's statute. A minority of states, Texas among them, require any person who suspects abuse or neglect of an older or disabled adult to report it; most limit the duty to named professions such as health and social-service workers. If the shop is unsure what its state requires, put the question to an employment or elder-law attorney with the state named and the type of visit described.

How to know you did this right

• Every sentence you said can be prefixed with "I saw", "I heard", "she told me" or "I smelled".
• You have a reference number written down next to the date and time.
• The customer and any caregiver did not see or hear you make the call.
• The shop has a management-only note and the general job notes contain nothing beyond the work.
• You did not go back to look for more evidence.

If you notice afterwards that you said a conclusion ("he's abusing her"), you have not ruined the report. Call back with the reference number and give the observations behind it.

References

• Eldercare Locator, U.S. Administration for Community Living: 1-800-677-1116, referral to local APS intake.
• Your state's adult protective services statute and intake guidance (reporting duty, confidentiality and good-faith immunity provisions).
• National Adult Protective Services Association, public guidance on making a report.
• See related: What a Tech Can and Cannot Do About a Welfare Concern; Signs of Self-Neglect in a Customer Home; Elder Financial Exploitation: The Signs a Tech Sees.