Safeguarding in Health & Social Care

Explain the meaning of abuse and explain the harm to self

According to the case study, the Lynetter Nardone is a lady of 64. Due to her neuro-degenerative disease, she remains housebound most of the time. Nadia, a girl of 24 is taking care of the old lady. But after some days the old lady finds that her money is disappearing so she talks to her family member and installs a CCTV camera worth 1000 pounds to detect the thief. She finds that her maid is taking away her money. The caregivers can hurt her physically but she does not. But it breaks the heart of the, she is a vulnerable person and staying alone in the house, she needs the help of the care givers but after this incident she cannot as she barely believes in the nurses. May this incident is not the cause of any physical harm but on the other hand they she has no trust and faith remain on the nurses or she cannot allow any stranger to her home. She is already a patient of neurological disorder, for her, the feeling of helplessness works negatively. She is undergoing a heart-ache and anger.

Basically elderly abuse takes place when the seniors are living alone; in home most of the time the abusers are close family member but in this case study the abuser is the care givers. There are different types of factors that can be the cause of elderly abuse:

Physical abuse: In the health care setting physical abuse does not only consider the accidental injury, it often considered the non-accidental injuries on the other hand physical assaults are not being hit and shoved by other, it also considered as the use of wrong use of drugs. As indicated in the word physical it relates to the kind of abuse which involves physical elements. For instance, physically hurting someone which has more categories including; assault, forced or sexual abuse, over dozing or wrong medication and deliberate reduction in physical care.

Emotional abuse: In case of emotional and psychological abuse, often the family members or care givers speak to the elderly person in such a way that they if hurts elderly persons. As emotions are attached to ones beliefs, values and personality, this becomes the most common form of abuse which is often neglected. Care givers and family members have to be very careful with their gestures and words that could lead to emotional abuse. There are two major types of emotional abuse, one is verbal and another is non-verbal.

Verbal abuse: verbal abuse is basically threatening elder people, blaming them, humiliate and ridicule them. As well as indirectly using the words that can hurt or offend them by any means. This abuse often occurred in verbal communication with the patient. Nurses, care givers must not use the words that are inappropriate in health and social care setting.

 Non-Verbal abuse: ignoring the elder people, isolate them from daily activities and family members and terrorizing them are the main precursors of non-verbal abuse. Furthermore, showing gestures that could mean something abusing to the patients are also considered non-verbal abuse. Posturing in health & social care must be understood, patients are vulnerable and sensitive to these issues, care givers and nurses must understand gestures, postures and other activities that could lead to non-verbal abuse for patients.

Sexual abuse: Sexual abuse basically comes under the physical abuse in general but because of its severity it can be classed as separate type of abuse, clear and precise act in sexual abuse is to force a vulnerable adult to have sexual intercourse. Moreover, it is like forcing one vulnerable adult to watch pornographic materials or force to watch sex acts, as well as force them to induce or seduce is also considered as sexual abuse.

Abandonment and neglect: This is another form of non-verbal abuse, vulnerable adults are searching for attention of caregivers and family members. If they intentionally or unintentionally hurt the elder people then it affects the psychology. When adults are neglected either intentionally or unintentionally they are faced by this abuse. Not paying much attention to patients, keep them in isolation or responding to their needs not in timely manner.

Financial crisis: Financial crisis is like misuse of checks and bank accounts; stealing cash and household things; force them to sign on blank checks and most importantly investment fraud. Taking and concealing the belonging of vulnerable adults are also considered financial abuse. Vulnerable adults become more vulnerable to this type of abuse when they are often neglected because they want someone to talk to them, often meet them and have soft corner for them.

Healthcare fraud: Unethical doctors, care givers and nurses; do not provide proper healthcare by the engaged staffs; overcharging for the treatment and recommended over dose.

According to this case study the vulnerable elder person has been suffering due to emotional or psychological abuse and financial abuse also. She finds that her money is disappearing and after installing the CCTV camera she has understood that the care giver is actually taking off her money. As already she is in vulnerable position and due to age she has less trust on people but due to this event, afterwards she cannot able to trust anyone. This behavior of the caregiver affects her mentally and emotionally on the other hand she has been taking away her money so she is also affected financially also. All these factors are contributing in affecting harm to self and others.

The word vulnerable is used for the persons who do not have adequate safeguarding. Often the elderly vulnerable people remain alone in the house as their family members are gone outside for work. This old people are remaining at the risk stage so the older people are considered as vulnerable people. They are often affected due to any physical and mental difficulties which affect them from doing their day to day work and as a result they need the help of the care givers. So often it is seen that this old people are taking the help of the care home for a nurse (Collins, 2009). They stay alone in the house and as they are physically challenged so they cannot tract every activity of the care givers. In that case, care givers can easily cheat them or loot the. This the risk factor of being alone in the home.

Often the care givers treated badly with the service users. The patients are already in the vulnerable stage in that case they need the care of the others on the contrary they are getting abuse from the care givers. As the older person is staying alone in the home they must be cared but often they are overheard. Abuse is something that is violation of human rights (Shipman and Hooten, 2009). There is a severe chance of getting hurt from the care givers, as they are living alone they can be the prey of the care givers.

The individual must respond when they understand that the care giver is harming him or her. The old and vulnerable person should not waste time and ask for help from the family members. They should also lodge report to the care home and the police station to avoid further casualties (Funk et al, 2003). The vulnerable person must do the report secretly so that the care-giver cannot understand the matter otherwise in rage they can take sever action against the vulnerable individual.

Some of the common sign of abuse and self-harm include inappropriate bruising which is a situation in which blood is released from the blood vessel which is resulted of trauma accidental or non-accidental (Bloom, Standing and Lloyd, 2008). Other than this, low self-esteem and emotional withdrawal are also some common signs of abuse. Individuals that suffer from abuse and self-harm are not motivated and are not able to connect emotionally with others. Key individuals which are vulnerable to abuse include children, young people, persons with learning disabilities, service users with mental health issues, elderly people, persons with dementia etc. There are various ways in which self-harm can be occurred. This includes cutting burning, hair pulling, overdosing etc. When, child suffers from situations such as loneliness, sadness, low confidence anger then they start harming themselves (Gilbert and et. al., 2009). On the other side of this, people with learning disabilities also suffer from abuse or self-harm because of their incapability. Abuse can occur in relationships which are in home. This includes relationship between father and child, mother and father etc. People can also suffer from abuse in care institutes where abuse can occur between patient and care workers or providers.

Risk Factors

The researcher has come to know about the kind of abuses like physical, mental and sexual abuse. Among the three of them the lady in the case is the prey of the mental or psychological abuse. There are several risk factors lying in this scenario among the most effective one is mental turmoil of the lady. The old lady cannot trust anyone other than her relatives. According to her she is treating like a victim and she loses all her faith on every stranger. As the care givers have little insight about the condition of the patient, she commits that crime (Jha and Stanton-Geddes, 2013). The role of the care givers has negative impact on the mind of the lady. She is vulnerable; spending most other time alone, so often the behavior of the make them feel that they are isolated and deprived. As they cannot do the daily work or they cannot earn money to run their own expenditure so they definitely feel that they are deprived from the society. In order to regain their confidence back, the care giver have to be sensitive but the lady gets exact opposite. The attitudes of the care givers make her feel that she is dejected and helpless. A feeling of insecurity generates in her, she needs the safeguarding of the people but unless she gets completely frightened with the incident.

It can be stated that social and cultural factors have direct impact on types of abuse and harm to others. People which are uneducated and live in poverty line are the one which suffer more from abuse. Other than this, cultural factors such as ethnicity, religion and discrimination also have their impact on abuse (Bifulco and et. al., 2005). People are often abuse under the guise of religion which is a big threat to their life. In simpler terms, it can be stated that teachings of a person doctrine religion is used to harm a person physically and emotionally. Discrimination also has a direct impact on the life of a person. This includes sadness, anxiety, depression and feeling of guilt.

Conclusion

In the above tasks, the actual nature of abuse and its kinds are discussed in detail, it is really important for care workers and nurses to fully understand the nature of abuse and develop strategies to minimize the effect of abuse on vulnerable adults. Healthcare fraud to vulnerable adults and risk factors that could lead serious consequences must be analyzed in safeguarding adults setting by minimizing the risk factors and by properly understanding the abuse context and responding by appropriate strategies.

You may also like to read: 

• Consequences of racial and ethnic inequality
• Principle Of Health And Social Care
• Policies of Health and Safety
• Health promotion
• Food Safety Plans

Reference

• Bifulco, A. and et. al., 2005. The childhood experience of care and abuse questionnaire (CECA. Q): validation in a community series. British Journal of Clinical Psychology.
• Bloom, G., Standing, H. and Lloyd, R., 2008. Markets, information asymmetry and health care: towards new social contracts. Social science & medicine.
• Gilbert, R. and et. al., 2009. Burden and consequences of child maltreatment in high-income countries. The lancet.

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