By Long Island Senior Advisor Care Team · October 2, 2026
Nassau and Suffolk each run their own Adult Protective Services. Here is who to call, what the county published about response times, what a caseworker does at the door, and where APS stops and the Ombudsman begins.
The call most Long Island families wait too long to make
You have noticed it on your last two visits. The mail is piled up. The refrigerator holds little but condiments. Your father's pants hang off him, or your mother has stopped answering the landline for days at a time. You are not sure it is bad enough to "report" anyone, and you are fairly sure your parent would be furious if you did. So you wait for one more visit.
On Long Island, the agency built for exactly this moment is Adult Protective Services (APS). It is the least understood public service in senior care, because most families only picture it as a hotline for abuse. In practice it is a county social services caseworker who comes to the house, looks at the situation, and decides whether the adult needs help that nobody around them is providing.
This guide explains what actually happens after you call in Nassau and in Suffolk, how the two counties differ, what APS can and cannot do, and what to do if the problem is inside a facility rather than a home. We are a care-guidance site, not a government office or a law firm, so use the official numbers below to make the report itself.
Who APS is for, and why there is no single Long Island hotline
New York does not run one statewide APS office. Adult Protective Services is organized county by county through each county's Department of Social Services. That matters on Long Island, where an adult daughter in Garden City may be calling about a mother in Smithtown, or a son in Manhattan about a father in Riverhead. The county where the vulnerable adult lives decides which office takes the referral, not where you live.
Nassau County describes the program as serving adults 18 and older who cannot protect themselves because of physical or mental impairments and who lack a willing and able person to help. It covers abuse, neglect and financial exploitation. Suffolk's description is similar: impaired adults living in the community who may depend on someone else for basic needs. Notice the phrase living in the community. APS is aimed at people in their own homes or a relative's home, not residents of licensed nursing homes or assisted living, which have separate oversight (more on that below).
The direct referral lines are 516-227-8395 for Nassau County Adult Services and 631-854-3232 for Suffolk County APS. If you are unsure which county line to use, the state human services call center at 1-844-697-3505 can route you. Nassau's county page lists that call center as staffed Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Our county directory pages, Nassau and Suffolk, list the Office for the Aging contacts that sit alongside APS.
Call 911 if someone is in immediate danger. APS is a caseworker system, not an emergency dispatch. For after-hours situations that are urgent but not 911-level, the county social services after-hours numbers are 516-573-8626 in Nassau and 631-854-9100 in Suffolk.
What counts as a reason to call
Families often assume APS only wants to hear about a caregiver hitting someone. The categories are wider. Physical abuse and neglect by a caregiver are in scope. So is financial exploitation: a new "friend" added to the bank account, a contractor who keeps returning for more money, a relative who has taken over the checkbook and stopped paying the utilities. Nassau's description of its program specifically includes victims of financial exploitation.
Self-neglect is the one families underestimate. An older adult who cannot manage food, medication, heat, hygiene or safe housing, and who has no one providing that help, is exactly the person APS exists for, even if nobody is doing anything wrong to them. On Long Island this shows up in recognizable ways: an oil or gas bill unpaid into the winter, a house in Levittown or Bay Shore where rooms have become impassable with clutter, a widow in Port Jefferson who has been hospitalized twice for missed medications.
Signs worth writing down before you call include weight loss you can see, repeated falls, unpaid bills and shut-off notices, spoiled food, untreated wounds, confusion about the date or the people around them, and sudden changes in who is handling their money. A specific list helps the intake worker far more than "I am worried about my mom."
You do not have to prove abuse or neglect. A good-faith referral is protected: New York's Social Services Law gives people who make a referral in good faith immunity from civil liability for making it, and Nassau's county page repeats that protection. You are asking the county to look, not accusing anyone.
What happens after you call: the two counties' published timelines
Both counties begin with an intake screen. A worker listens to your concerns and decides whether the situation fits APS. Suffolk's FAQ says an intake worker reviews your concerns to decide whether an investigation is warranted. If it is accepted, a caseworker begins an assessment, and Suffolk describes a 60-day window for that assessment. If the adult needs services after the assessment, a case may be opened.
Nassau publishes a faster front end. Its Adult Services page says a caseworker visits within 24 hours for life-threatening situations, or within 3 business days for non-life-threatening ones, to assess the person in their home. We could not find a matching published day-count on Suffolk's page, so we will not assume one. If you are calling about Suffolk and the situation is getting worse, tell the intake worker so, and call 911 if it is an emergency.
The visit is the part that surprises families. The caseworker comes to the home, usually without your parent having asked for it. They look at the house, the food, the medications and the person. They may speak with neighbors, doctors or the bank. Your parent may be polite, or may be furious at you. Neither reaction means the referral was wrong.
Ask the intake worker one thing at the end of the call: what can they tell you afterward? Privacy rules limit what a county can share with the person who made the referral, so do not assume you will get a full report. Ask what to expect, and give them your phone number so they can reach you if they need more detail.
What APS can offer, and what it cannot do
Nassau lists the kinds of help APS can evaluate: case management, counseling, financial management services, medical and psychiatric services, preventive services, family-type home placements, HIV/AIDS case management and post-institutional support. In plain terms, the caseworker may connect the person to home care, arrange someone to help manage bills, link them to the county's Office for the Aging for meals or case management, or help with a move if living at home is no longer safe.
What APS generally cannot do is override an adult who understands their situation and chooses to stay put. Adults with decision-making capacity have the right to make choices others consider unwise, and an APS caseworker works with that reality. If a person cannot understand the risks and no one can act for them, the path can move toward the courts. That is the territory of Article 81 guardianship, which is a separate legal process with its own cost and timeline.
APS also does not pay for your parent's care. If the answer is paid in-home help or a move, the money question comes next. Our guides on in-home care costs and how families pay cover that. The state median for non-medical in-home care, per the 2025 CareScout survey, is $6,673 a month at 44 hours a week. That is a New York State figure; no published Nassau-specific or Suffolk-specific median exists, so budget with a range and get local quotes.
When the problem is inside a facility, not a home
Everything above is for adults living in the community. If your parent is in a nursing home, an adult home or an assisted living residence and you suspect neglect, the route is different. Start with the Long-Term Care Ombudsman for that county. Long Island has two separate regional programs: 631-470-6755 for Suffolk, and 516-466-9718 for Nassau. The Ombudsman can attend care conferences and works with the resident's consent. Our guide to the Ombudsman and filing complaints walks through it.
You can also file a complaint with the state health department. The Long Island regional office line listed in our records for facility complaints is 631-851-3098. And if you are still choosing a facility, the license check in our license verification guide comes before the tour, not after.
A useful rule: if the person lives in their own home or yours, think APS. If they live in a licensed facility, think Ombudsman and the health department. If you are unsure, the state routing line above will point you to the right office, and the Nassau and Suffolk Offices for the Aging, at 516-227-8900 and 631-853-8200, can help you sort out what is available.
Preparing for the call and for the visit
Before you dial, gather what you can. Write down your parent's full name, address, date of birth if you know it, and any diagnoses you know about. List the specific things you saw and when. Note who else is involved: a home aide, a neighbor, a person with power of attorney, a relative with access to the accounts. If money is part of the worry, note which accounts and what changed.
Tell the intake worker plainly what you fear will happen and how soon. "She has no heat and it is November" and "he has not eaten a real meal in a week" move a case differently than a general concern. If your parent has a doctor who knows the situation, give the doctor's name.
Think about the visit too. A caseworker arriving at a front door in Massapequa or Mastic will meet a parent who may be embarrassed. If you can, tell your parent beforehand that someone from the county may stop by to see if they need help, and that you asked because you love them. Not every family can say that, and APS can proceed either way. But a parent who has been warned gently is less likely to close the door.
Keep your own records after the call: the date, the county office, the name of the worker if given, and what you were told. If a week passes and you hear nothing while the situation worsens, call again and say so.
The decision most families are really facing
Long Island has roughly 564,500 residents 65 and older, about 273,100 in Nassau and 291,400 in Suffolk. Many live in the single-family houses they bought decades ago, with adult children an hour or more away by the Long Island Expressway. Distance is how decline goes unnoticed. The summer visit, the Thanksgiving visit, the Nor'easter that cuts off a week of check-ins: these are the moments when families see what the phone calls hid.
Calling APS is not the same as putting your parent in a home, taking away their rights, or reporting a crime. For many families it is the first step that brings a professional into the house to say what is happening. Sometimes the outcome is simple: meals, a homemaker, a bill-paying arrangement. Sometimes it is a hospital stay and a move. Sometimes the worker finds the person is managing and closes the case.
If you are still weighing whether to call, our county line guide explains which office handles what across Nassau and Suffolk, and the Offices for the Aging are a gentler first call if your parent is 60 or older and you just need to know what exists. But if there is danger now, do not wait: call 911 for an emergency, or the county APS line above. Waiting for one more visit is how a bad week becomes a hospital stay.
