Get Help
For families & caregivers
When the person you love will not ask for help themselves.
What you can do
You can contact us on their behalf. We cannot discuss a specific adult’s care with you without their permission — that is a legal limit, not a policy we chose — but nothing stops you from telling us about a situation, and nothing stops us from reaching out to someone who might accept contact.
Tell us where they are likely to be, who they already trust, and what has gone wrong with care before. That last one is usually the most useful thing you can give us.
Why they may be refusing help
It is rarely stubbornness. Common reasons, in roughly the order we encounter them:
- A previous experience where they were disbelieved or treated as drug-seeking
- A congregate setting they cannot physically tolerate — noise, crowding, no exit
- A rule that would separate them from a partner, a pet or their belongings
- A conviction they are ineligible, based on one bad answer years ago
- Shame, which is worse for veterans specifically and worse again for women veterans
Most of these are addressable, and knowing which one it is changes the approach completely.
Looking after yourself
Supporting someone through this is depleting, and the depletion is not a sign you are doing it wrong. If you are in crisis yourself, 988 is for you too. You do not have to be the person in danger to call it.
What we will not do
We will not tell you that we can make an adult accept care, and we will not report back to you about their treatment without their consent. Any organization that promises you either of those is either lying or breaking the law.
What you can ask us to do
Contact somebody on your behalf where they have agreed to it, advise on what help exists, or simply tell you whether what you are describing sounds like something we can help with. You do not need permission to ask a question.
What we cannot do
We cannot discuss the care of an adult without their consent, and we will not turn up to somebody who has not agreed to be contacted. Both of those are frustrating when you are worried and both exist to protect the person you are worried about.
When somebody refuses help
This is the most common reason families contact us, and there is rarely a clean answer. What generally works better than persuasion is staying in contact and keeping the route open, so that when the person is ready the door has not closed. What reliably does not work is making the relationship conditional on accepting help.
Where somebody is in immediate danger, that is a different situation and the emergency resources on this site apply.
When someone you love refuses care covers what changes the odds, and what to do about the fear underneath it.