Adult protective services elder abuse reporting in San Antonio, Texas: who to call, what happens next, and how facility complaints differ from in-home reports.
By San Antonio Senior Advisor Care Team · September 26, 2026
When a San Antonio family suspects that an aging parent, neighbor, or relative is being hurt, starved, isolated, or financially drained, the single most useful thing to know is who actually answers the phone. For an older adult living in their own home, with relatives, or with a private caregiver anywhere in Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, or Kendall County, that call goes to Texas Adult Protective Services (APS), a division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), through the statewide Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400 or online at txabusehotline.org. The hotline is staffed around the clock, every day of the year, and intake specialists will ask what you observed, where the person lives, and whether they appear to be in immediate danger.
This guide focuses on that community-based reporting path, since it is the one most San Antonio families have never had to use before and often confuse with other systems. If the person you are worried about lives in a licensed nursing home, assisted living community, or receives licensed home health services, a different state process applies, covered later in this guide and in our companion article on the Texas HHSC complaint process for assisted living facilities. If anyone is in immediate physical danger right now, call 911 or the San Antonio Police Department or Bexar County Sheriff's Office non-emergency line before calling any other hotline.
Texas Human Resources Code Chapter 48 gives APS authority to investigate reports involving people age 65 or older, or adults with disabilities, who live in the community. The law recognizes several categories, and families do not need to prove which one applies before calling. Abuse includes physical injury such as bruising, restraint, or confinement, as well as sexual abuse and verbal or emotional abuse severe enough to cause mental or emotional harm. Neglect covers a caregiver's failure to provide food, water, clothing, shelter, medical care, or a safe environment, including self-neglect, where an older adult living alone is unable to meet their own basic needs and has no one else responsible for their care.
Exploitation is its own category and one of the fastest-growing reasons Texas seniors end up in the APS system: the illegal or improper use of an older adult's money, property, identity, or resources by a caregiver, family member, or scammer. This can look like a relative moved in as a caregiver who is quietly draining a bank account, a new acquaintance pressuring an isolated widow to add them to a deed, or a sweepstakes or romance scam that has cost someone their savings. None of these situations require a medical diagnosis or a lawyer to report. If something looks wrong financially or physically, APS intake can sort out whether it meets the legal threshold for an investigation.
One of the most common points of confusion for San Antonio families is assuming that Adult Protective Services and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) are the same front door. They are not, and calling the wrong one can slow help down. APS, run through DFPS, investigates abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older adults and adults with disabilities living in the community: their own home, a family member's home, or an unlicensed setting. HHSC's Regulatory Services division, by contrast, licenses and inspects Texas nursing homes under Health & Safety Code Chapter 242 and assisted living facilities (Type A and Type B) under Human Resources Code Chapter 247, and it investigates complaints that occur inside those licensed facilities.
In practice, this means a report about a mother being neglected by a live-in home health aide in her Alamo Heights house goes to the APS hotline at 1-800-252-5400. A report about a resident being neglected inside a licensed Type B memory care unit in Stone Oak or a nursing home near the Medical Center goes to HHSC's Complaint and Incident Intake process instead, which our separate guide to verifying a Texas assisted living license and filing an HHSC complaint walks through in detail. When a family is not sure which situation applies, either hotline can redirect the report to the correct agency, so the important step is making the call rather than guessing correctly on the first try.
After a report is taken, APS screens it to decide whether it meets the legal definition of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of an elderly or disabled adult and, if so, assigns it for investigation based on the apparent level of risk. A caseworker is assigned to make contact with the alleged victim, and, depending on the situation, may also speak with the reported caregiver, family members, neighbors, medical providers, or financial institutions. Texas law generally allows APS to interview the adult in private, without the alleged abuser present, and the identity of the person who made the report is kept confidential from the family under Texas law, with narrow exceptions such as a court order.
Importantly, adults in Texas who are mentally competent have the right to refuse services, even when a caseworker believes intervention would help; APS cannot force an unwilling adult out of their home. What the agency can do is connect eligible older adults with emergency shelter, in-home services, money management help, minor home repairs, and referrals to community resources while the investigation proceeds, and in cases involving incapacity or ongoing danger, APS can petition a Bexar County court for emergency protective orders or guardianship proceedings. Families who are also weighing whether a loved one needs a guardian or whether a power of attorney is sufficient may find our guide to guardianship versus power of attorney in Texas useful alongside an APS report.
Beyond the state hotline, San Antonio families have local resources that can help before, during, or after an APS report. The Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG), the federally designated Area Agency on Aging for the San Antonio region, can connect families to case management, caregiver support, and benefits counseling at (210) 362-5200 or aacog.com, and its staff regularly work alongside APS on cases involving frail or isolated older adults across Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, and Kendall counties. Bexar County's statutory probate courts, which handle guardianship and incapacity matters, are another resource when a case moves from an APS investigation toward a legal protective arrangement.
Families of veterans have an additional layer of support: Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center and the Texas Veterans Commission (tvc.texas.gov) can help connect an at-risk veteran with wellness checks, home-based primary care, and benefits that reduce the isolation and financial strain that often make exploitation possible in the first place. And for any San Antonio family unsure whether what they are seeing rises to reportable abuse, neglect, or exploitation, the Texas Abuse Hotline's intake specialists are trained to ask the right questions and make that determination together with you. You never need to be certain before you call; you only need to be concerned.
Free, online, and no pressure — we work for families, not facilities. Hablamos español.
Or call (830) 355-0287