Safeguarding Adults in Bexley

Description

Tackling Abuse
All organisations in Bexley are committed to the prevention of abuse of vulnerable adults and to a prompt response when abuse is suspected.

Who is a vulnerable adult?
A vulnerable adult is defined as a person aged 18 or over who may be unable to take care of themselves, or protect themselves from harm or from being exploited. This may be because they have a mental health problem, a disability, a sensory impairment, are old and frail, or have some form of illness.

What is adult abuse?
Abuse can be defined as the mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group, often resulting in a violation of human and civil rights. The abuse can vary from treating someone in a disrespectful way which significantly affects the person's quality of life, to causing actual physical suffering.

Abuse can happen anywhere - in a person's home, in a residential or nursing home, a hospital, in the workplace, at a day centre or educational establishment, in supported housing or in the street.

Forms of abuse:

Physical abuse - such as hitting, pushing, pinching, shaking, misusing medication, scalding, restraint, hair pulling etc
Sexual abuse - such as rape, sexual assault, or sexual acts to which the vulnerable adult has not or could not have consented, or to which they were pressuried into consenting.
Financial or material abuse - such as theft, fraud or exploitation, pressure in connection with wills, property, or inheritance, misuse of property, possessions or benefits.
Psychological or emotional abuse - such as threats of harm or abandonment, being deprived of social or any other form of contact, humiliation, blaming, controlling, intimidation, coercion, harassment, verbal abuse, being prevented from receiving services or support.
Neglect - such as ignoring medical or physical care needs and preventing access to health, social care or educational services or withholding the necessities of life such as food, drink and heating.
Discriminatory abuse - such as that based on race or sexually or a person's disability and other form of harassment or slurs.
Institutional abuse - can sometimes happen in residential homes, nursing homes or hospitals when people are mistreated because of poor or inadequate care, neglect and poor practice that affects the whole of that service.

Abuse may be deliberate or be the result of ignorance, lack of training, knowledge or understanding.

Who might be causing the abuse?
The person who is responsible for the abuse is very often well know to the person being mistreated or exploited and could be:

a paid carer or volunteer
a health worker, social care or other worker
a relative, friend or neighbour
another resident or service user
an occasional visitor or someone providing a service
people who deliberately exploit vulnerable people
an unpaid carer
another vulnerable adult

What do you do if you are being abused or you suspect that someone you know may be the victim of abuse?

You should contact one of the numbers below as soon as possible. Your concerns will be taken seriously and will receive prompt attention.

What if the abuse is also a crime?
If the abuse is also a crime such rape, theft, assault, or racial harassment, you should involve the police to prevent someone else from being abused. If the police are involved we will work with them and you, to support you. If you are worried about contacting the police you can contact social services to talk things over first, but if the person is immediate danger you should call the emergency services by dialling 999.

What will happen if abuse is reported?
If you have contacted social services or a community mental health team because you are being abused or mistreated, a member of staff will contact you as quickly as possible. If you are contacting us about someone else, we will contact them as soon as possible.

Your concerns will be taken seriously. This may involve other agencies

if there is immediate danger we will aim to visit you or the person about whom you are concerned straight away
if there is a significant risk of harm we will aim to make contact within 24 hours
for other reports of abuse we will normally make contact within five working days.

The person dealing with the report will work with you, or the person about whom you contacted us, to help make any decisions. They will provide help and support in taking action to try to end the abuse and ensure that it does not happen again.

You may want to someone to contact us on your behalf and to nominate someone to speak and act for you.

We will not normally do anything or share information with other people without permission of the person who is being abused. The only exception to this is in situations where others may be at risk of abuse or the person is not able to make their own decisions because of mental disability.

Contact

Care Central (Bexley Council). The lines are open from 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday. If you need help outside of these hours, please call the Emergency Duty Team.

Tel: 01322 356 363

Emergency Duty Team: 020 8303 7777

Community Mental Health Teams:

Erith Centre: 01322 356 100
Bexleyheath Centre: 020 8301 9440
Local Police Station: 0300 123 1212
In an emergency: 999

If your concern is about someone who is in a residential or nursing home:

Care Quality Commission: 03000 616 161

Health agencies:

Bexley Care Trust: 020 8298 6000
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust: 01322 625 700

If you are concerned about someone who is in hospital:

South London Healthcare NHS Trust: 020 8302 2678

Action against Elder Abuse: 0808 808 8141