What you should do if you think a vulnerable adult has been or is being harmed or abused? Summary A person who is vulnerable may be unable to protect themselves from harm. If you think a person is being abused your actions now may help the person being abused to manage their situation better. Anybody may experience abuse. A person may be abused by: • Their partner or a member of their family • A neighbour or friend • Or a paid carer.
The issue of giving mental health patient rights is a rather controversial one, as often the right of the patient to refuse certain treatment or care may result in serious health consequences for the patient and can be seen as neglect of the healthcare provider. According to researchers and healthcare providers, when a mental health patient is admitted to a healthcare facility, he/she may lose certain abilities, most notably: * The ability to schedule time; * The ability to choose and control his/her activities; * Ability to manage financial and legal affairs; * Ability to make important decisions (Cady, 2010, p. 117). The abilities, mentioned above, are important for decision making and may result in serious health consequences for the patient, so leading health professionals and researchers distinguish between the forms of mental disorders and the extentto which they affect people, differentiating between competent and incompetent patients. According to Buchanan (2004), legal competence requires the following capacities, most notably: * To reason and deliberate; * Hold appropriate goals and values; * Appreciate one’s circumstances; * Understand
How the general public perceive people with mental health problems depends on their diagnosis 4. Stigma can be a barrier to seeking early treatment, cause relapse and hinder recovery 5. Future research should investigate the experiences of service users and their families to understand and measure the impact of stigma Stigma can pervade the lives of people with mental health problems in many different ways. According to Corrigan (2004), it “diminishes self-esteem and robs people of social opportunities”. This can include being denied opportunities such as employment or accommodation because of their illness.
Different areas of a young carers life have been considered including their family (and parenting capacity), health, education and safeguarding concerns. Attachments between the parent and child can suffer when there is mental illness and separation away from their parents, due to hospital admissions, is a worrying time, however as separation is natural in child development this can create resilience in the child. I chose this subject as I have experience from my practice and I can link the theory and research to my direct work. I found that adults with mental illness are one of the most excluded groups in society and there are close links between poverty, mental ill health, discrimination and social exclusion. Parental mental illness can have a negative effect on the parent / child relationship and child development, especially where there is little external support.
Safeguarding Vulnerable People Regrettably, every day, vulnerable people across the UK suffer abuse of some kind. When abuse is reported, Essex County Council and its partner agencies for example, Essex Police, NHS and the voluntary services will take joint action to ensure vulnerable people are safeguarded from further abuse, and their risks are managed appropriately. Who is a vulnerable adult? A vulnerable adult is any person aged 18 or over who: 1. is or maybe in need of a community care service by reason of mental, physical or learning disability, age or illness. And who 2. is, or maybe, unable to take care of him or herself or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or serious exploitation.
This impairment affects the quality of the patient’s social lifestyle when the patient cannot perform normal daily activities and needs to depend on others. This will consequently affect the psychosocial aspect when the patient feels sad and unmotivated to move on with his or her life. Information from all the three aspects, the biological, psychological and social aspects of Biopsychosocial model is paramount as it helps the medical professionals to get holistic picture of the patient to achieve shared expertise with the patient (Larivaara, Kiuttu and Taanila, 2001, p. 9). Patient-centered care is another methodology that must be applied during clinical practice. Patient centered, in this context, means treating patients as partners, involving them in planning their health care and encouraging them to take responsibility for
Carers should take into consideration any form of distress shown by the individual e.g. a service user may have a tendency to be aggressive to service providers. The psychodynamic perspective would explain this by saying that the individuals aggressive behaviour is due to experiencing inner turmoil and tensions and conflicts from the person’s past are projected into current situations. Service providers should not take this personally – it will be due to unresolved conflicts with one’s same sex parent. In severe cases help should be provided through the use of psychotherapy.
This is because the term ‘vulnerable adult’ may wrongly imply that some of the fault for the abuse lies with the adult abused. The term ‘adult at risk’ is used as an exact replacement for ‘vulnerable adult’, as used throughout No secrets. However, this section gives some more detail as to what this term can mean in practice. An adult aged 18 years or over ‘who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness; and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation’ (DH, 2000). This definition is taken from the current Department of Health guidance to local partnerships.
Unresolved grief is generally grief which is either delayed and experienced long after the loss or distorted grief, in which the person may not feel emotions, but instead experiences other symptoms. Role disputes - Role disputes occur when the patient and significant people in his life have different expectations about their relationship. Role transitions - Depression may occur during life transitions when a person's role changes and he doesn't know how to cope with the change. Interpersonal deficits - This may be an area of focus if the patient has had problems with forming and maintaining good quality relationships. IPT was developed for the treatment of depression and its efficacy for this application is backed up by several large-scale randomized control trials.
Introduction to Duty of care in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings Outcome 1 Understand the implications of duty of care Define the term Duty of care Responsibility to care for someone who is not able to care for themselves. Requires assistance and protect health and safety and avoid careless injury. A legal understanding that the care and service should be done in the best interest of client or patient. Duty of care, the health worker acts like a caretaker of that person. The client could be someone too old or too young, too ill or mentally unwell to care for himself or herself.