Missouri's elder abuse hotline: is this self-neglect, and do I call?

Play 18

The legal line

You typed elder abuse and neglect hotline missouri self neglect because the fridge is empty, the bills are in a pile, or he will not let anyone in, and you are trying to decide whether a phone call is a betrayal. It is not. This play is the call itself: the number, the hours, the card in your pocket, the eligible-adult definition, and the fact that a capable no is not automatically self-neglect. A report is not a guardianship. A report is not a way to override a competent no. This page is not legal advice.

Dad Refuses Help Editorial Team. Published September 11, 2026. Play 06 is when to call and what happens. This page is how you actually dial.

What Dad says

If you call the state on me, you are no son of mine. I am fine. Stay out of it.

What it usually means

He heard a raid. Self-neglect is a category the state takes reports on. You cannot sort a capable no from an eligible adult who cannot obtain essential needs from a website.

Your next move

Write what you saw. Fill the card. If the facts look like an eligible adult who cannot meet essential needs, call 1-800-392-0210 during DHSS hours or use the online form. If they look like a capable man who will not have a stranger, do not use the hotline as a workaround.

The legal line

You do not have to be a listed mandatory reporter to pick up the phone. Reasonable cause is the statute's words, not a courtroom you assemble in the kitchen. A report is a report. It is not a betrayal, not a court order, and not a way to force a caregiver on a man who still has capacity. Investigators work for the department. They do not work for you.

What is the Missouri elder abuse and neglect hotline number for self-neglect?

Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services publishes the Adult Abuse and Neglect Hotline as 1-800-392-0210, Relay Missouri 1-800-735-2966, with hotline hours seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and reports can also be made online. That is the operational number this desk uses for abuse, neglect, and self-neglect. DHSS's Stop Adult Abuse page is the door. It publishes materials on neglect and self-neglect as separate categories. Use that page. Do not invent a county brand.

The Missouri Attorney General's seniors page also lists 1-800-392-0210 and prints hours as 7 a.m. to Midnight, plus a Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-392-8222 for people who think they have been defrauded. Use DHSS for the abuse, neglect, and self-neglect report. Use the AG consumer line for a scam. Do not blend the hours. If you call after DHSS's published window of 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., use the online form on the DHSS page or wait for 7:00 a.m. The AG's printed Midnight is not the window this desk treats as operational.

Self-neglect is the state's word for a man who cannot obtain what he needs. It is not the state's word for a man who can still obtain food, keep the heat on, and get out of a chair, and who is refusing a stranger. You are allowed to describe what you saw. The department decides whether it meets the statute.

Who counts as an eligible adult, and is a capable no automatically self-neglect?

No. A capable no is a decision. Play 01 is that line. Self-neglect, as a hotline category, is the other fact pattern: he cannot obtain what he needs.

Missouri Revised Statutes section 192.2400 defines an eligible adult as a person sixty years of age or older who is unable to protect his or her own interests or adequately perform or obtain services which are necessary to meet his or her essential human needs, or an adult with a disability between ages 18 and 59 in the same situation. That is the gate. A man who can still shop, pay the electric, and get to a chair, and who is telling you he does not want a stranger in the hallway, may not be in that definition. A man who cannot obtain those things, whether or not he still says he is fine, may be. You are not the investigator. Write the fridge, the heat, the unpaid bill, the fall he could not get up from, the stove. Leave the verdict off the card.

If the facts look like a capable man who will not have a stranger, stay on Play 01 and Play 02. The hotline is not a workaround for a no you did not like. If the facts look like essential needs he cannot meet, you call. Play 06 walks what happens after. This page is the number and the card.

What do I put on the card before I call?

Have the card filled before you dial. You will be calmer, and the statute already told you what they will ask. Section 192.2410 says a report shall be made orally or in writing, and it shall include, if known, the name, age, and address of the eligible adult, the name and address of any person responsible for care, the nature and extent of the condition, and other relevant information. Write those four blocks: who he is and where, who else is in the house or supposed to be, what you actually saw, and anything else that is a fact rather than a theory. Date it. Keep it.

Section 192.2405 requires certain persons to immediately report or cause a report to be made. It also covers any person having reasonable cause to suspect that an eligible adult presents a likelihood of suffering serious physical harm or is in need of protective services. A later sentence says any other person who becomes aware of circumstances that may reasonably be expected to be abuse or neglect may report. You do not have to be a nurse, a social worker, or one of the named professionals on that list to pick up the phone. Reasonable cause is the statute's words. You do have to be describing facts, not a family argument about pride.

Is a report a betrayal, a guardianship, or a way to override a no?

No. A report is a report. Calling is asking a public agency whether the man in that house is an eligible adult who needs protective services. They may screen it out. They may visit. They cannot do what a court has not authorized. They do not work for you. A report is not a betrayal. He may call it that. The statute does not. You are not filing a petition. Guardianship is a court process with a high burden of proof. Do not treat the hotline as a same-day version of either one.

A report is not a way to override a competent no. If he can still receive information and make a decision, his no stands. Self-neglect is not the word you use to win the argument. It is the word the state uses when he cannot obtain essential needs. If you are not sure which facts you have, write them anyway. Call during DHSS hours. Let the department sort the gate.

The other desks in this metro are not APS. Aging Ahead covers St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, and Jefferson counties for adults 60 and older. In the City, St. Louis Area Agency on Aging is the desk, at (314) 612-5918. The Missouri Senior Resource Line at 1-800-235-5503 connects callers to their local AAA after they enter a ZIP code. Those numbers are for meals, centers, and the next public resource. They are not the hotline. Do not call Aging Ahead and think you have made an Adult Protective Services report.

What to do tonight

1. Write the address, his age if you know it, who else is in the house or responsible for care, and the condition you actually saw: food, heat, falls, whether he can get up, whether he can obtain what the house now requires.
2. Put 1-800-392-0210, Relay 1-800-735-2966, and the DHSS hours of 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days, on the same card. Put the online-form note under it so you do not call the AG's printed Midnight by mistake.
3. If the facts look like essential needs he cannot meet, call during those hours or use the online form on the DHSS Stop Adult Abuse page. If the facts look like a capable no, do not use the hotline as a workaround. Open Play 01 and Play 06.
4. Tell the siblings you called, or that you did not, so nobody files a second confused report in the morning.

When to ask the care team or the doctor

Whether a change in thinking, a fall, or a missed dose is a medical emergency is a clinical question. The hotline is not an ER. If he is injured, cannot get up, or newly cannot breathe or speak, call 911. Ask the physician who treats him what they are seeing and whether anyone on that team is a listed reporter who already has a duty to call. Do not ask a home care company to decide if this is "a DHSS case." Do not ask this desk to diagnose capacity. Capacity is not yours to find from a website.

Next concrete move: read Play 06, when to call and what happens, and Play 01, what you can do without a court. If the next word in your head is a petition, open legal options when a parent refuses and call an elder-law attorney, not this desk.

If he will accept hours, that is a different door from APS. New Plan Care is an independently owned non-medical in-home care company based in Chesterfield, and a paid placement on this site. Call (314) 405-0887.

Sources: Missouri DHSS, Stop Adult Abuse; Missouri Revisor, RSMo 192.2400, 192.2405, 192.2410; Missouri Attorney General, Senior Citizens Resources; Aging Ahead; SLAAA; Missouri Area Agencies on Aging, Senior Resource Line 1-800-235-5503. Opened September 11, 2026. Not legal advice.