The Adult Protective Services program provides services to vulnerable adults (elderly and disabled) who are victims of abuse, neglect, and exploitation and also supports adults (ages 18 to 59) with disabilities who need assistance to remain in their homes or in other living arrangements other than costlier residential or nursing home settings.

The Adult Protective Services program serves some of Florida's most vulnerable adults through five types of services.

• Adult Protective Services investigates allegations of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of vulnerable or disabled adults, including those reported to the Florida Abuse Hotline.
• Protective Supervision provides intensive services to protect vulnerable adults from being harmed from further abuse, neglect, or exploitation. These services may include in-home services such as home healthcare, Meals on Wheels, and personal care. Other services may include placement into a facility which provides the least restrictive environment to maintain the vulnerable adult's safety and care.
• Protective Intervention provides information, referrals, and supportive in-home services and/or placement, on a voluntary basis to vulnerable adults in order to prevent abuse, neglect, or exploitation form initially occurring or prevent the recurrence through the provision of these services.
• Community Care for Disabled Adults assists adults who have a permanent physical or mental disability that restricts their ability to perform one or more activities of daily living and impedes their capacity to live independently. Services include adult day care, case management, transportation services, homemaker service, and personal care.
• Home Care for Disabled Adults provides case management services and a small subsidy to approved caregivers providing in-home care to adults 18 through 59 with disabilities who would otherwise be placed in nursing homes or institutions. The subsidy payments are intended to help offset the cost of housing, food, clothing, and incidentals, as well as those expenses related to medical, pharmaceutical, and dental services not covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or other insurance.

During Fiscal Year 2020-21, the program conducted 44,285 adult protective investigations. In 97.99% of investigations, the victim was seen within 24 hours, and 99.81% of investigations were completed within 60 days.

The program provided ongoing case management and in-home services to 5,240 vulnerable adults during Fiscal Year 2020-21.

The Adult Protective Services program is funded as part of the Family Safety Program budget entity.

Services to Disabled Adults. In-home services for disabled adults had a waitlist of 1,573 seeking services in Fiscal Year 2020-21. DCF reports that for Fiscal Year 2020-21, the average care plan cost for an individual in the Home Care for Disabled Adults program is $1,920, and the average care plan cost for an individual in the Community Care for Disable Adults program is $8,600. The cost of these services rise as individuals age. Individuals in need of services are screened with a uniform instrument by adult services counselors and placed on the statewide waitlists based on screening scores and the date services were requested. Once funding is available through attrition of individuals from the programs, the highest scoring individuals are pulled from the waitlists for a face-to-face assessment. If eligible, the person is moved into one of the programs; however, the attrition rates for these programs is not large so adding new individuals is rare.

Other Reports
The Auditor General reports on department operations are located on its website.

Websites of Interest
Florida Abuse Hotline
National Center on Elder Abuse
American Bar Association, Commission on Law and Aging

Performance Information
Performance measures and standards for the department may be found in its Long Range Program Plan and Planning and Performance Measures, which reports the department's performance on external and internal measures for its various programs. The measures allow the user to view performance at both a statewide and geographic region level. 

Chapters 410 and 415, Florida Statutes.

Adult Protective Services, 850-488-2881

Florida Abuse Hotline, 1-800-962-2873

Website