There are many different forms of abuse and they all result in behaviour towards a person that deliberately or intentionally cause harm. It is a violation of an individual’s human and civil rights and in the worst cases can result in death.
The safeguarding duties apply to an adult who:
Child exploitation is child abuse. It is complex and brings many challenges that cannot be dealt with quickly by a single agency, which is why, in the East Riding, we are working together to implement a Contextual Safeguarding approach to mitigate the risks to children and young people. This is done by reducing the incidents of missing episodes and safeguard children and young people from child exploitation, trafficking and modern day slavery.
The Contextual Safeguarding Strategy and related guidance sets out how the East Riding will work towards ensuring the effective and coordinated measures and responses are in place to safeguard all children and young people at risk of, or who are experiencing, exploitation.
The East Riding Contextual Safeguarding Strategy 2019 - 2022
This may be a person who:
Whilst neither the Care Act of 2014 nor its statutory guidance specifically defines abuse, it does state that professionals should not limit their view of what constitutes abuse or neglect as it can take many forms and the circumstances of the individual case should always be considered.
The Care Act statutory guidance goes on to provide a detailed definition of each of the ten types of abuse which is listed below. Further to this, the guidance highlights that incidents of abuse may be one-off or multiple, and affect one person or more. Therefore professionals should look beyond single incidents or individuals to identify patterns of harm.
There are many factors that could increase the risk of abuse. Some of these are listed below:
People dependant on others for assistance, especially with finances and personal care
Mental incapacity, communication difficulties, decreased mobility
Those without visitors
Those subjected to hate crimes
People having care in their own homes
Not knowing where to turn to for help
People might also think that the standard of care they are receiving is all they can expect.
Abuse of Adults at Risk does not have to be deliberate, malicious or planned. It sometimes happens when people are trying to do their best but do not know the right thing to do. Sometimes the person who causes harm does so because of frustration even in the caring context.
However, irrespective of why the abuse might happen, any abuse of an Adult at Risk is harmful. This makes it vitally important to ensure that those involved with the care and wellbeing of Adults at Risk have a clear sense of what signifies abuse and what must happen should abuse be suspected or discovered.
Everyone is a potential victim of crime or abuse but the following conditions can increase that vulnerability:
a learning disability
mental health issues
a physical or sensory impairment
is frail or an older person.
Abuse can occur anywhere and is not confined to any one setting.
Just because there are no records of abuse having occurred does not mean it has not happened or is happening now. It is important to remain alert for the signs at all times, for example abuse can occur: