ICON COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

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BTEC HND IN HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE

Unit 10: Safeguarding in Health & Social Care Organization

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Safeguarding in Health and Social Care Organization

Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................1
AC1.1: Why some individuals are subject to abuse............................................................2
AC1.2: Risk factors associated with abuse and/harm to self and others:............................3
AC1.3/AC2.2: Impact of social/cultural factors on abuse and professional involvement in
protecting vulnerable groups:..............................................................................................4
AC3.3: The possible improvement that may be used to minimize physical abuse in health
and social care:....................................................................................................................5
AC3.1 How to minimize abuse:...........................................................................................6
AC2.1: Strength and weaknesses of current legislation to reduce abuse:...........................7
AC3.2: Effectiveness of working strategies to minimize abuse in health care:..................9
Recommendations:.............................................................................................................11
Conclusion:........................................................................................................................12
Reference:..........................................................................................................................13

Introduction
Health and social care very largely depends on the human aspect of the treatment. In the
modern world, families are busy and the society is moving fast, hence, it is not possible
for a family member to care for the needy, hence the role of health care providers are very
important. They are trusted with a persons life, wellbeing, and properties. As vulnerable
groups are looking up to others for their care and wellbeing, it is all the more important
that this aspect is better looked into and cared for so that there is no room for unwanted
events of abuse and self-harm.

AC1.1: Why some individuals are subject to abuse

Mrs. Lynette Nardone was bed borne, and in need of help. Help to do her daily work and
care of a professional. Nadia, her care worker, was her hope and source of support. But
Nadia broke it by stealing from her. Though Mrs. Lynette had noticed cash to be missing
from her purse, her family installed camera worth of almost two times what she stole just
to be sure of it. And Nadia was caught on camera, stealing money. Making Mrs. Lynette
loose not only her money, but also her trust. Though she was afraid to report it or act on
it, as her life depends on care workers, she did it anyway.

Abuse is the improper usage of or treatment of an entity which is often done to gain
benefit improperly. The principal type of abuse received in this case by Mrs. Lynette is
financial abuse.
Followings are the most common types of abuse:
Physical abuse: This type of abuse usually is caused by the use of force to cause pain
and Injury to others. Symptoms such as burns, scratches, bruises, accidents are often
signs of abuse.
Neglect: This kind of abuse occurs when, vulnerable adults who are failing to fulfill
their basic needs, such as feeding or help with personal care are not provided with it. As a
result, there may be some deterioration of health, or a person's appearance or mood.
Financial abuse: This occurs when a vulnerable adult is used for any kind of financial
gain. Often valuables go missing in the apartment or broken or there may be a change in
the financial circumstances of the adult.
Sexual abuse: Sexual acts that are performed on the vulnerable adult that s/he did not
or could not resist, or whatever ways manipulated in approval. This abuses symptoms are
changes in behavior or physical discomfort.

AC1.2: Risk factors associated with abuse and/harm to

self and others:
Abuse causes a person to harm himself or herself no matter if s/he is abusing or is being
abused.
The abuser gets used to a messy lifestyle, being afraid of being caught, afraid of the law
enforcement and everything. The abuser runs a risk of passing on this trait to his/her
offspring. Just like a child who was physically or verbally abused might grow up to an
abuser him/herself, the same could happen with others.
On the other hand, a person who is abused faces a lot of risks undoubtedly. The varied the
abuse, the varied the risks. In case of physical abuse, the abused person gets harmed
physically. Physical pain, cuts, bruises all of these hurts a persons physic seriously. In
case of neglect, basic needs are neglected and the person can face serious consequences
for this. In case of financial abuse, financial loss is a must. Be that money being stolen, or
any other thing, or things being damaged, all of these are financial abuse and this causes a
great deal of harm to the abused person. Sexual abuse, the most prominent abuse in the
recent times, scars a person for life, resulting in the loss of sanity at times
The risks of abuse cannot be described in words, they harm a person a lot, and in some
cases, in ways that cannot be mended.

AC1.3/AC2.2: Impact of social/cultural factors on abuse

and professional involvement in protecting vulnerable
groups:
Usually a person becomes abusive because of his/her surroundings. A child who was
abused grows up to be an abuser usually, a person who is in dire need of money but
cannot earn enough by his/her full time jobs so financial abuse, a person who has seen
physical abuse growing up, at times thinks that that is the common way of life, that abuse
is alright, hence abuses others. In some places, it is a culture to physically abuse the
weak, hence, people do not hesitate even one bit while abusing others.
These abusers can seem to be abusive and non-compassionate at first, from the top, but
some research will show that it is their past and their social or cultural impact that has
brought them to this state.
On the other hand, people who are getting abused face this situation because of their
disability. The need help from these care workers who abuse them, the society compels
them to take care from strangers who might end up abusing them in various ways
possible and in this case, they do.
There is professional involvement in protecting these groups of people; there are policies
these agencies need to follow and their conduct needs to be of some specific way. If these
are not met, they face the risk of being taken legal action on and also firing the employee
responsible for these kinds of action.

AC3.3: The possible improvement that may be used to

minimize physical abuse in health and social care:

In this case scenario, the present policies of health care are not enough for the care
provider to provide care. The person in need of care is not giving permission to clean her
as it will hurt her, but the cleaning is very necessary and a part of the care providers job.
She is paid to do this. This can be put off for one day but not anymore as personal
hygiene is very important to any patient. In this case, what the care provider did was not
justified but something had to be done.
It is cases like these which prove that some revision is needed for this industry. The
policies need to be revisited and the care takers need to be more careful of them.
In this case, the policy could have been to talk to a family member about this, the current
policy is that no care can be provided if the person in need of are doesnt provide with
permission. But in cases like these, where the one in need of care cannot make the
necessary decisions and where care provision cannot be stopped, some other guardian
must be chosen, or some alternate way must be figured out. Physical abuse is not the
answer here and the care provider has to understand that.

AC3.1 How to minimize abuse:

Scenario

How I would deal with situation

Refuses to take medication

Make him/her understand the consequences

of not taking the medication and if that still
does not work, hide it in their food or
somehow give it to them deceptively

An individual who wants to join lonely Try to make him/her understand, spend
hearts club but whose family are opposed time with that person or tell the family to
to him doing so

do so as the patient must be very lonely

otherwise, s/he would not want to join
lonely hearts club

An individual who tells you that another Report it to the authorities any way or at
person is stealing money but does not want least the family to judge the base of that
to report it

acquisition

AC2.1: Strength and weaknesses of current legislation

to reduce abuse:

In countries like Bangladesh, where most of the people live under deprivation, out-ofpocket (OOP) payment for healthcare leads to limited healthcare utilization, catastrophic
economic burden and consequently poor health condition (Van Doorslaer et al. 2006;
O'Donnell et al. 2005). In such a situation,appropriate measures need to be taken so that
allcitizens can access healthcare at an affordable pricewhenever needed, i.e., can have
universal healthcoverage (UHC).
The population of Bangladesh, which is one of the highest in the world, is more than 4
times higher than Kenya and 2.4 times higher than Thailand. Hence the health care
system here is not sufficient for the population here. Even though the legislations to
reduce abuse are mostly useful enough, the implementation is not there.

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This situation seems pretty impressive but in reality, is not enough and without the proper
implementation of the legislations, useless at times.
Under the Human Rights Act 1998 it is said that vulnerable adults will be treated in a way
that respects and promotes human rights in all human beings. In 2000 the Department of
Health and the Home Office has published the document titled No Secrets, which gave
a guidance on developing and implementing a multi-agency policy and procedures to
protect vulnerable adults from abuse. In 2005, the document titled Safeguarding Adults
was published which was formulated by the Association of Directors of Social Services,
and it provided a national framework of standards for good practice and outcomes in
safeguarding. The publications aim has been to serve as a toolkit for those organizations,
who deliver health and care services for adults, and, to develop a practice framework to
enable the implementation of No Secrets guidance and ensure the safety of vulnerable
adults.
But these are not followed to the point. Hence, the health care committee inquired the
government with all these inquires only to be held back.

AC3.2: Effectiveness of working strategies to minimize

abuse in health care:

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The current working strategies are in action, but are not as effective as they need to be.
Bangladesh being an extremely over populated country, healthcare provided here is not
up to par, hence, a lot of people go without receiving ample health care, and those who
do, rarely receive it in the quality they deserve to.
The care providers, being small in number compared to the population who needs care,
face a lot of hardship. They have to complete a task in a very small amount of time and
care for a large number of patients as the number of providers is less. Hence, care
provisions not up to mark.
And the working strategies are doing very little to help this case, as it is not very easy to
reduce the population or the number of people who need this care or to increase the
number of people who are providing it.
It was recommended by the department of health care to do a multi-disciplinary research
on these abuses.
Data from Action on Elder Abuses helpline (which is currently funded by
theDepartment for Health) provide a useful and longitudinal perspective on
the incidence of abuse, where it happens and who is involved. The Social
Services Inspectorate, which is now part of the Commission for Social Care
Inspection, also studies the implementation of No Secrets, and related local
collections of information, as a routine part of its inspection activity. Under
the Modernization of Adult Social Care Research Initiative, the Department of
Health is funding a study The impact of partnerships and regulation in adult
protection. This study, which has just begun, will examine all referrals to
adult protection services in local councils. Quantifiable data will be collected
on the nature and volume of reported abuse and on immediate outcomes.
More qualitative data will be collected on the experience of service users in
terms of the accessibility and effectiveness of services. Discussions with
service users and other keystakeholders will inform the development of a
range of outcome measures. In addition, the Department of Health has
recently begun to fund Action on Elder Abuse to explore the possibility of a
national recording system for the incidence of adult abuse. The results of this
work will be used to launch a national data collection on adult abuse, which
in turn will be used to generate a performance measure. The Department of
Health believes this work, and the current study referred to above, will
provide a good basis from which to clarify the extent
and nature of adult abuse. The Department will also consider an initial
scoping study in support of the current activity, but one that will focus on

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gaps in knowledge. From there, the Department will actively consider
astrategy for commissioning further research.

Several more recommendations had been made here. The mental capacity act of 2005
helps the care receivers in this respect. But still, implementation is not complete and the
care receivers are still abused in various ways. The care providers and the agencies need
to be more vigilant in this respect.

Recommendations:

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Quite a few recommendations can be placed in this situation. In these cases, the health
care provider must be trained for these situations. Some of the steps can be

Running background check on the employees, if they have a history of abuse

before, they should not be hired by the agencies

Being constantly vigilant if the employees are doing any financial abuse to the
care receivers

Increase the severances of the punishments if abuse is intentionally done

Encourage the patients to appoint anindependent Mental Capacity Advocacy

Service or a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard authorization if they are mentally
impaired or cannot take correct decisions for themselves, in which case, the are
provider can contact him/her for suggestions and to solve problems.

There is no performance indicator or measurement of how much or what behavior

can be cited as abuse. A measurement should be made so that, necessary actions
can be taken if that line is crossed

Awareness has to be increased among the ones being abused as they feel the need
to just bear with it as they are the ones who need care. They know that they are
dependent on the care givers and hence just put up with whatever way they are
treated in. this can be stopped only if they are made aware of the consequences of
the care providers actions and ensured that no harm will come upon them

Lastly, the current rules need to be implemented. There are rules against these
abuses but them not being implemented properly, the abusers think they can get
away with it, hence they do not stop, so the consequences should not only be on
paper but also implemented.

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Conclusion:
Caring for vulnerable individuals and safeguarding them is a sad truth of our time. The
ones providing it, the health care people, are the ones doing an amazing job. Even though
their job has a lot of limitations in them, their effort is commendable.
But when they abuse the ones they provide care for, this is not commendable at all, in
fact, this has to be stopped. The ones in need of care are vulnerable, but this does not give
the care providers to abuse them. These have to be stopped and the rules need to be
reinforced

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Reference:

http://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-375581/Ender-abuse-case-studies.html.
http://www.frimleypark.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/safeguarding
Royal Cornwall hospitals, safeguarding of vulnerable adults policy, v1.4, July 2013
The health select committees enquiry into elder abuse: paragraph 31
The health select committees enquiry into elder abuse: paragraph 39, 39
The health select committees enquiry into elder abuse: paragraph 113, 127
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/9/section/28