West Virginia Adult Protective Services: Reports and Refusal

To report suspected abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult in West Virginia, call the Adult Protective Services Centralized Intake hotline at 1-800-352-6513. The line is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and takes reports from anyone — professionals with a legal duty to report as well as neighbors, family members, and friends who are worried about someone.¹ You do not need proof. You need reasonable cause to believe something is wrong.

Who APS Protects

West Virginia law uses the term “vulnerable adult.” Under W. Va. Code § 9-6-1, that means any person over 18, or an emancipated minor, who because of a physical or mental condition cannot independently carry on the daily activities needed to sustain life and reasonable health and protection.² Dementia, traumatic brain injury, serious mental illness, and physical disabilities that leave someone unable to feed themselves, manage medications, or avoid danger all fit.

The same statute separately covers anyone living in a nursing home or other residential care facility, whether or not they would otherwise qualify as a vulnerable adult. The reporting process is the same for abuse happening inside an institution as for abuse in a private home.²

What You Can Report

APS investigates three categories of mistreatment, plus a fourth designation that speeds up the response.

Abuse is the infliction or threat of physical or psychological harm. Hitting, pushing, intimidating, isolating, confining, and using undue influence to control someone all fall inside this definition.²

Neglect is an unreasonable failure by a caregiver to provide the care a vulnerable adult needs to stay safe and healthy. The statute also includes self-neglect, where the adult’s own inability to maintain basic self-care threatens their well-being, and caregiver-induced self-neglect, where someone uses undue influence to cause the adult to stop caring for themselves.²

Financial exploitation is the intentional misuse of a vulnerable adult’s money or assets, including using undue influence to cause that misuse. Someone who made a good-faith effort to help manage the adult’s finances and simply made a mistake is not exploiting them under the statute.²

An emergency situation is a separate designation for circumstances presenting a substantial and immediate risk of death or serious injury. Tell the intake officer if you believe the situation is an emergency, because it changes how quickly a caseworker must respond.²

Making the Call

Every report in West Virginia goes through Centralized Intake at 1-800-352-6513. Bring what you know to the call. You don’t need all of it, and you shouldn’t delay a call to go looking for more.¹

The victim’s name, age or date of birth, current address and location, and a description of their physical, cognitive, and emotional functioning.
What you believe is happening, how long you think it has been going on, and any injuries you have seen.
The name of the person you suspect is causing harm and their relationship to the victim, including whether they have access to the victim’s home or finances.
Any safety hazards first responders should know about, such as weapons in the home or dangerous animals.

The intake officer will assign a referral number you can use to follow up. Anonymous reports are accepted, though contact information helps if investigators need to reach you for follow-up details.

If You Are a Mandatory Reporter

For most people, the phone call is the report. Mandatory reporters have a second step: they must complete the APS Mandatory Reporting Form within 48 hours of suspecting the abuse or neglect.¹

Who Has to Report and Who May Report

Under W. Va. Code § 9-6-9, certain professionals must report immediately when they have reasonable cause to believe a vulnerable adult or facility resident is being abused, neglected, financially exploited, or placed in an emergency. The list includes medical, dental, and mental health professionals, social service workers, law enforcement officers, humane officers, and any employee of a nursing home or other residential facility.³ A mandatory reporter who knowingly fails to report, or knowingly prevents someone else from reporting, commits a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $100, up to ten days in jail, or both.⁴

Financial institution employees are handled separately. Bank employees and others in financially related work are permitted to report suspected financial exploitation to law enforcement, the county prosecutor, or APS, but they are not required to in the same way doctors and social workers are. Public officers and employees, however, are required to report suspected financial exploitation.³

Anyone else can report voluntarily. The statute explicitly says nothing in the article is intended to prevent individuals from reporting on their own behalf.³ Reporters who act in good faith have immunity from civil and criminal liability under W. Va. Code § 9-6-12.

What Happens After You Report

A supervisor screens the report to decide whether it meets the statutory definitions of abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, or emergency. If it does, a caseworker is assigned.

The response clock starts when the referral enters the system. For emergencies, the caseworker must make face-to-face contact with the alleged victim within 24 hours.⁵ For all other cases, the visit must happen within 72 hours.⁶

The caseworker visits in person to assess the adult’s physical condition, mental state, living environment, access to food and medication, and any ongoing threat in the household. If they find evidence of criminal conduct, they file a copy of the report with law enforcement and the county prosecutor. Reports involving a nursing home or other facility also go to the state or regional long-term care ombudsman and the facility’s administrator.⁷

One thing to expect: confidentiality rules limit what you will hear about the outcome. Mandatory reporters are notified when an investigation opens and when it closes, but the specific findings are generally not disclosed.³ Voluntary reporters generally receive less information still.

The Adult Can Refuse Services

This surprises many reporters. A competent adult can refuse APS services. Being vulnerable does not strip someone of the right to make their own decisions. The Department’s APS policy states that any client with decision-making capacity can accept or refuse the intervention and services offered, and has the right to be told what may happen if they refuse.

The investigation itself is not optional. West Virginia law requires APS to investigate every report that meets the statutory criteria, whether or not the adult wants it to proceed. So even when the adult declines help, the caseworker still completes an assessment and documents the situation, and the case can be reopened later if the adult changes their mind or circumstances get worse. The adult’s wishes can be overridden only when a court has found them legally incompetent.

If you are unsure whether a situation rises to abuse, neglect, or exploitation, call anyway. The intake officer’s job is to decide what qualifies. Your job is to describe what you’ve seen.

1
Bureau for Social Services. Centralized Intake for Abuse and Neglect
2
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 9-6-1 – Definitions
3
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 9-6-9 – Mandatory Reporting of Incidences of Abuse, Neglect, Financial Exploitation, or Emergency Situation
4
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 9-6-14 – Failure to Make Report; Penalty
5
West Virginia Department of Human Services. Adult Protective Services Policy
6
West Virginia Legislature. Preliminary Performance Review of Adult Protective Services
7
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 9-6-11 – Reporting