Play 06
When to call Adult Protective Services in St. Louis County, and what happens
You searched adult protective services St. Louis County because the fridge is empty, he will not let anyone in, and you are trying to decide whether a phone call is a betrayal. It is not. Missouri runs a statewide Adult Abuse and Neglect Hotline. Self-neglect is a category the state takes reports on. A capable "no" is still a no. This play is the number, the statute's definition, and what an investigator can and cannot do.
What Dad says
If you call the county on me, you are no son of mine. I am fine. Stay out of it.
What it usually means
He heard "protective services" as a raid. He is defending the house. He may also be unable to obtain what the house now requires. You cannot sort those two things from a website.
Your next move
Write what you saw. If the facts look like an eligible adult who cannot meet essential needs, call 1-800-392-0210. If they look like a capable man who will not have a stranger, stay on Play 01 and Play 02.
What is the Missouri elder abuse and neglect hotline number?
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. 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 and neglect report. Use the AG consumer line for a scam. Do not blend the hours. If you call after DHSS's published window, use the online form or wait for 7:00 a.m.
The department is required to maintain a telephone for reporting. A report must 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. Have that on a card before you dial. You will be calmer.
Who counts as an eligible adult?
Missouri Revised Statutes section 192.2400 defines an eligible adult as a person 60 years of age or older who is unable to protect his or her own interests or adequately perform or obtain services necessary to meet 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 obtain food, keep the heat on, and get out of a chair, and who is refusing a stranger, may not be in that definition. A man who cannot obtain those things, whether or not he still says he is fine, may be.
Section 192.2405 requires certain persons to immediately report or cause a report to be made, and 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. You do not have to be a mandatory reporter to pick up the phone. Reasonable cause is the statute's words, not a courtroom you have to assemble in the kitchen.
Is it neglect if Dad refuses care in Missouri?
A capable adult can refuse help. Play 01 is that line. "Is it neglect if dad refuses care Missouri" is the 2 a.m. version of the same fear: if something happens tomorrow, will someone say I should have forced him. Forcing him is the thing you do not have the legal power to do while he has capacity. Self-neglect, as a hotline category, is the other fact pattern: he cannot obtain what he needs. You are not the investigator. You are allowed to describe what you saw and let the department decide whether it meets the statute.
Calling is not a betrayal. It 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.
County, city, and the other desks that are not APS
Adult Protective Services in Missouri is a DHSS function via that hotline, for every county. St. Louis County is not a separate APS brand you should invent. What the county does have is an Area Agency on Aging. Aging Ahead has provided supportive services in St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, and Jefferson counties since 1973 for adults 60 and older, including Meals on Wheels, senior centers, caregiving services, and community options consulting. If he lives in the City of St. Louis, the St. Louis Area Agency on Aging (SLAAA) is the desk, at (314) 612-5918. Missouri has 10 Area Agencies on Aging; the Missouri Senior Resource Line at 1-800-235-5503 connects callers to their local AAA after they enter a ZIP code. DHSS also describes Home and Community-Based Services that help older adults live in their homes rather than moving to an institution. Those are directories. New Plan Care does not run them.
A non-medical person in the house is a different door from APS. If he will accept hours, that is Play 02. If you want those hours from a company in this metro, Call (314) 405-0887. New Plan Care is an independently owned non-medical in-home care company based in Chesterfield, a client of the publisher, and a paid mention. It is not Adult Protective Services and it is not a rank.
What to do tonight
- Write the address, his age if you know it, who else is in the house, and the condition you actually saw: food, heat, falls, whether he can get up.
- If the facts look like essential needs he cannot meet, call 1-800-392-0210 during hotline hours or use the online form on the DHSS page.
- If the facts look like a capable no, do not use the hotline as a workaround. Open Play 01 and Play 02.
- 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 mandatory reporter who already has a duty to call. Do not ask a home care company to decide if this is "a DHSS case."
Next: Play 01, what you can do without a court, or Play 05, if the next word is guardianship.
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. Opened September 10, 2026.