elder abuse: some implications for health professionals

1
elder abuse some implications for health
professionals

• Jill Manthorpe
• Kings College London

2
Elder abuse, neglect and mistreatment and loss of
dignity

• Concern is unlikely to dissipate
• Professional regulation extensions
• Legal developments
• Review of No Secrets
• Self-audit
• Useful resources

3
Concerns abounding

• Care home worker stole 20k from residents
  Caring Times, April 2008.
• Conmen who earn a fortune by preying on the
  old, Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2002
• Family of elderly woman who was robbed on her
  deathbed face red tape nightmare to see crime
  investigated, Mail Online 26 June 2008
• Daughters pleas over mothers care home death,
  Mail Online, 14 July 2008
• Half a million forgotten elderly victims of
  crime, Mail Online, 7 November 2007
• Police probe six deaths of care home residents,
  Daily Telegraph, 24 September 2008

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The implications are

• Fear huge under-reporting
• Anxious relatives
• Mistrust
• Staff shortages?
• Managing with reduced quality of life

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2. Professional regulation

• Lessons from POVA List (vetting and barring)
• Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 extending
  to Health
• Changes to social care through personalisation
  registration of some but not all fears about
  transferring of risk

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The implications for health

• Employment and human resources work
• The importance of records
• Not stopping at checks
• Interface with professional regulation

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3 Legal developments

• New offences under Mental Capacity Act 2005 of
  mistreatment and wilful neglect
• Role of IMCA and Mental Health Advocates
• Use of Lasting Powers of Attorney and Advance
  Decisions to refuse treatment
• DOLS - Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards

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The implications for health

• Finding sources of support, information and
  advice
• Personal and professional indemnity
• Constructing thresholds
• Providing, seeking challenging experts
• Working with colleagues
• Casting the law as obstructive or empowering

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4. Review of No Secrets

• Key questions around organisational relationships
  and funding
• What are the interfaces with NHS systems?
• NB Review of law and adult social care
• Development of agreed outcomes
• Ministerial view awaited

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Self-audit

• I know where the policies are on elder abuse in
  my organisation
• I know who to contact if I have a query
• I know what to do if I have suspicions
• I know how to support staff who are uncertain,
  distressed, under pressure
• I know how to communicate with an older person
  who is fearful.

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resources

• Review of No Secrets DH
• Action on Elder Abuse
• Ministry of Justice (MCA Code of Practice)
• DH DOLS Code of Practice
• Home Office (SVG, hate crime, distraction
  burglary, victim support)