A practical guide to reporting elder abuse in Georgia through Adult Protective Services, including what a Fulton or DeKalb County investigation actually looks like.
By ATL Senior Advisor Care Team · July 28, 2026
Every Adult Protective Services case in Georgia begins the same way: a phone call to the statewide intake line at 1-866-552-4464, run by the Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Aging Services (DAS). The line is staffed to take reports on abuse, neglect, self-neglect, and exploitation of adults age 65 and older, or disabled adults 18-64, anywhere in the state, including all ten counties of the Atlanta Regional Commission's metro footprint — Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Cherokee, Clayton, Douglas, Fayette, Henry, and Rockdale. Callers can stay anonymous, and Georgia law protects good-faith reporters from civil or criminal liability even if the investigation ultimately finds nothing actionable.
What the hotline does not do is dispatch police. APS caseworkers are civil investigators, not law enforcement, so if a family member in Decatur or Stone Mountain describes a situation involving active physical violence or a weapon, the intake worker will direct that caller to 911 first and open the APS case in parallel. For everything short of an active emergency — a caregiver who has stopped buying groceries, a signature that doesn't match on a bank withdrawal, a bedridden parent left unwashed for days — the hotline is the correct first call, and it operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Most people picture APS responding to a caregiver mistreating a parent. In practice, a large share of Georgia's substantiated cases involve self-neglect — an older adult living alone in Buckhead, Riverdale, or unincorporated Cobb County who has stopped taking medication correctly, let utilities lapse, or is hoarding to the point the home is unsafe. Georgia's statute explicitly authorizes APS to investigate when a person's own decline, not a third party, is creating the danger. Neighbors, mail carriers, and property managers file a meaningful share of these reports because family sometimes lives out of state and simply doesn't see the daily reality.
Self-neglect cases are also the ones most likely to end in a services referral rather than removal. A caseworker who finds an isolated senior in Kennesaw with a full refrigerator of expired food and unpaid power bills will typically connect that person to the Atlanta Regional Commission's Area Agency on Aging for home-delivered meals, a CCSP waiver assessment, or a utility-assistance program before considering any more drastic step. The goal under Georgia law is the least restrictive intervention that keeps the person safe in their own home whenever that's realistic.
Once a report is accepted, DAS assigns it a priority level based on how urgent the danger sounds — an allegation of physical injury or immediate life threat is investigated within 24 hours; lower-risk reports like financial concerns typically get a first face-to-face contact within about five to ten business days. A Fulton County caseworker, for example, will attempt an in-person visit with the adult alone, away from the person accused, because Georgia's protocol treats a private interview as essential to getting an honest account. If the older adult refuses entry or refuses services and has been assessed as having capacity to make that decision, the caseworker generally cannot force intervention — competent adults retain the legal right to decline help, even help that looks obviously necessary to family watching from outside.
Investigations typically also include medical records review where relevant, interviews with neighbors or facility staff, and in financial exploitation cases, a look at bank statements or power-of-attorney documents. A case can close in a matter of weeks with a services referral, or escalate — DAS can petition for emergency protective services, and in the most severe capacity-loss cases, refer the matter toward guardianship or conservatorship proceedings in probate court. Financial exploitation reports involving a caregiver or family member are also routinely referred to local law enforcement and, for larger-dollar cases, the Georgia Attorney General's office for parallel criminal review.
Hospitals are one of the most common sources of APS referrals in metro Atlanta, because emergency department staff are mandated reporters under Georgia law. A senior who arrives at Grady Memorial Hospital with injuries inconsistent with the explanation given, or who is medically ready for discharge from Emory Decatur Hospital but has nowhere safe to return to, triggers a hospital social worker's report before that patient ever leaves the building. That's a different track from a family calling the hotline directly, but it converges on the same DAS intake system and the same investigative process described above.
In a genuine emergency — an adult in immediate danger who lacks the capacity to consent to protective services — Georgia law allows DAS to seek a court order for emergency protective placement, which can include temporary removal to a safe setting. This is intentionally a high bar and a court-supervised step, not something a caseworker does unilaterally on a home visit. For nearly every case that isn't an acute life-threat, the process runs through the standard investigation timeline rather than emergency removal, which is why the hotline call — not a 911 call — remains the right starting point for most concerns families bring to us.
APS is required to notify the reporter, when contact information was provided, that the case has been closed, though Georgia's confidentiality rules limit how much detail about the outcome can be shared with someone outside the household. Families sometimes find that frustrating, especially after a self-neglect case closes with services in place rather than a facility placement they were hoping for. That outcome usually means the caseworker determined the older adult has decision-making capacity and declined further intervention — a legal reality, not a sign the report was ignored.
A closed case is not permanent. If the situation changes — the services referral falls through, a new caregiver enters the picture in Woodstock or Alpharetta, or the person's condition visibly worsens — a new report can and should be filed. DAS treats each call on its own facts rather than discounting a household with prior history. If you're weighing whether a situation rises to the level of a report versus a conversation with a primary care doctor, the statewide hotline can also simply answer that question — you don't need certainty about wrongdoing before you call.
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