Safe Guarding and Abuse in Adult Care

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Safeguarding & Abuse in Adult care. Abuse may happen once, or it may be ongoing. Either way the situation should be viewed as serious. If abuse has happened once, there us every likely hood that it will happen again. It may be physical, sexual, or emotional. Deliberate neglect or a failure to act is also abuse, as is a vulnerable adult persuaded to enter into a financial agreement or a sexual act to which they have not given or cannot give informed consent. Abuse can take many forms, and is usually classified under five main headings. Physical Sexual Psychological Financial Institutional PHYSICAL ABUSE Physical abuse can include: Hitting, slapping, pushing, pinching, force-feeding, kicking, burning, scalding, miss-use of medications or restraint, cauterisation for the convenience of care staff, refusing access to toilet facilities, leaving people in wet/soiled clothes/bedding, Signs of physical abuse include: Multiple bruising or finger marks, fractures, scratches/cuts, pressure sores/ulcers/rashes from wet/soiled bedding/clothing, explanations not consistent with the injuries, deterioration of health without obvious cause, withdrawal, carers resistance to allowing people to visit, reluctance the service user to be alone with the alleged abuser. SEXUAL ABUSE Sexual abuse whether of adults or children can also involve abuse of a position of power. For some adults, informed consent is not possible due to limited mental capacity, in some cases, consent may not be given and the sexual activity is forced on someone against their will, or they are tricked or bribed into it. Sexual abuse includes rape and sexual assault, masturbation, indecent exposure, penetration/attempted penetration, sexual harassment, enforced witnessing of sexual acts or media, participation in sexual acts to which the service user has not/could not
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