What's the Difference Between Adult Protective Services and the Long-Term Care Ombudsman?

Both exist to protect vulnerable Ohio adults, but they have different jobs. Adult Protective Services (APS), run through each county's Job and Family Services department (Franklin County Adult Protective Services for Columbus), investigates reports of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of adults age 60 and older (or younger adults with disabilities) wherever that person lives — their own home, a relative's home, or a licensed facility — and can intervene directly, including seeking emergency protective orders in serious cases. The Ohio Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, by contrast, is specifically focused on residents of licensed long-term care settings — nursing homes, residential care facilities, and some other licensed settings — advocating for residents' rights, investigating complaints about care quality or facility practices, and helping with things like discharge appeals, even when the situation doesn't rise to the level of an APS abuse investigation. In practice, the two agencies often work the same case from different angles when a facility-based complaint involves suspected abuse. See our full ombudsman and APS explainer for contact information for both in central Ohio.