Child Protection An Introduction

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

P2

References

Beckett,C.(2003)Child Protection An Introduction. SAGE: London

Cheminais,R.(2006) Every Child Matters.David Fulton:London

Corby,B.(2006) Childabuse.(3rd edition).Open University Press: Maidenhead

Department of Health. (2000)Framework for the Assessment of children in need and their families department of heath. Stationery Office: London

Flynn, H.and Barbara,S. (2004) Protecting Children. Heinemann: London

Horbert,C.Frankel,J.(1998) Child Protection. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes

Horbert,C.Frankel,J.(2009) Safeguarding Children. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes

Hicks, R. (2008) Munchausen by proxy. [Online].Available:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/disorders_munchausenssyndrome1.shtml

[15November 2010]

HM Government. (2010) Working Together to Safeguarding Children.Department for school and families:

Jennie, L. (2008) Safeguarding Children and Young People. (3RD edition).Hodder Education: London

Kay,J.(1999) Protecting Children.Continuum:London

Kay,J. (2003) Protecting Children. Continuum: London

Littlemore,S . (2003,). [Online].Available:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2700427.stm [13 November 2010]

NSPPC. (2009,) Abuse.[Online].Available:

www.nspcc.org.uk/default.html [13 November 2010]

Polnay,J .(2001) Child Protection in Primary Care. Radcliffe Medical: Abingdon

Safeguarding a child will not guarantee protection from abuse but permits early year practitioners to present a protective safeguarding environment for children who have been victims of abuse

Physical abuse – physical contact with one person to another. This can hurt the victim by making them bleed and this is done through actions such as: punching, kicking, strangling, drowning, pinching, burning and many moreThe Department of health have defined abuse as "a violation of an individual’s human and civil rights by any other person or persons". Vulnerable adults are prone to all kinds of abuse. I will now explain by giving examples first and then going further into depth with the explanation:

Financial abuse – this is when the abuser has control over the individuals income they are receiving. This can be done by telling the victim, they only have ‘x’ amount of money left to spend and they pocket the rest of the cash. The victim also starts to beg for their own money from the abuse but this can lead to other forms of abuse such as physical

Domestic abuse – this can involve family members. This can be done in relationships also such as boyfriends and girlfriends. This can take forms such as: physical abuse, sexual abuse, intimidation and threatening the individual

Professional abuse – this is only common in working environments. This is when the care worker does not care about the client they are taking care of

Verbal abuse – abusive behaviour in the form of talking to someone in an inappropriate manner. It is mainly swearing at the person. This can move onto physical abuse also. It can be done through mocking a person and threatening them

Sexual abuse – can be done in a number of ways; can be forced or making a person performs sexual acts or inappropriate touching

Isolation – this is the most occurring as it can be done and no one can really notice it. The individual can be harmed by: controlling what the abuser does e.g. using the toilet, no being given any food, not going outside from own home, making someone stay in a room which is not suitable to live in

Psychological abuse and emotional abuse – this can be the result of abuse that is being faced. The psychological effects may be that the person would feel depressed or in some cases even thinking of taking their own lives. This type of abuse can take forms of name calling, bullying, and abusing the individual sexually and physically

Neglect – this can take many forms such as not giving the client their basic needs such as not letting them eat food or not letting them finish a course of medicine they have been prescribed by the doctor. The carer is not looking after the client the way they should be doing and is not doing their job properly

emotional

physical

financial

sexual

domestic

isolation

professional

verbal

P3

Physical

Any physical contact can be seen as physical abuse depending on the force, nature of contact and intention behind the action. People can suspect abuse done by someone physically with the way they have changed behaviour. Maybe a person that is getting abused is normally very happy, friendly and open with everyone but slowly start to isolate themselves and change the way they behave and stop talking to people even their friends or family. There can be a history of physical abuse that cannot be seen by people which are well protected areas such as the inner thighs, upper arms; these will always be covered up well or the abuser will make sure these bruises are covered up well if they leave any so there is no indication that abuse is going on and they will not want to get caught. Other physical forms of abuse can be done by weapons such as bats, sticks, poles, rods and many other objects. The victim will be scared of these sorts of objects as it might remind them of when they were getting beaten with that object. Also burns can be physical such as cigarette burns, scalds from hot liquids dropped on the person. There are many cases where abuse was not indicated by people which could lead to death unfortunately which are sickening such as the Baby P case. All abuse went unnoticed and the victim died as a result.

Psychological

Some of the indicators are present in this one which is present in the physical abuse. Things such as a person isolating themselves when they are a bubbly character can be an indicator. Behaviour change can be an indicator too and outburst of anger at people can lead to isolation from everyone; even close friends and family. This can only occur when a person has been abused in other ways, so the abuse the person has been facing will have been going on for some time to feel like psychologically abused. The individual which is being abused will be uncomfortable around other people and will feel depressed most of the time. They will want to be left alone. They will also suffer from low self esteem and confidence. An elderly client may be threatened to be quiet and not speak to anyone. Or even the person may say it is ‘our little secret’ and if they do they will lose their accommodation if they do tell. Sadly suicide can be the case here if they cannot get away from the client such as support worker that visit them quiet often.

Financial

This can occur when a person is receiving care at home or home support. This support can be a family member or even a care worker. The person will be used to leaving their personal belongings on the side all the time such as wallets and purses. They start to link in old age with their money disappearing because they may be thinking that they had more money than before but think they are spending it but not remembering. This is not just money but can be jewellery that has gone missing. They may think they have given it to a family member. Also an example can be when someone is getting an elderly persons pension every week from the post office. There may not be anyone available to get the pension and they cannot go due to lack of mobility. The person may want to ‘borrow’ some money and promise to pay it back but never does. The money being borrowed is never given back.

D1

In this task I am going to assess the effects of two different forms of abuse on the health and wellbeing of adults.

Physical Abuse

The effects of short and long term psychical abuse are horrific. Through statistic, research and we identify how to tackle abuse in elderly and how to resolve abuse from occurring. Elder mistreatment is a multidimensional phenomenon that encompasses a broad range of behaviours, events and circumstances. The US National Academy of Sciences defines elder abuse as follows:

Elder abuse is intentional actions that cause harm or create a serious risk of harm to a vulnerable elder by a caregiver or other person who stands in a trusted relationship to the elder.

Referenced from: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/805727-overview.

One form of physical abuse and how to prevent it in the long term is adult protection services. APS are provided in each state to elderly and disabled persons who are reported to be victims of abuse, neglect and exploitation. Some statistics of abuse are:

In the most recent years the adult protection services completed 364,512 investigations of abuse, neglect and exploitation which involved older persons living at home. Of these investigations, 43% were confirmed. This shows how abuse is occurring all the time right in front of us and we do not even realise it therefore more actions, plans and solutions to tackle the problems are needed. In the last decade, the number of domestic elder abuse reports investigated by APS increased to more than 150 per cent. Domestic elder abuse is a family problem as almost 90% of abusers were family members.

Physical abuse is a major concern all over the nations with research showing that elderly suffering from abuse has risen and is increasing each day. This means that the protection, solutions we have in place are not working and much more needs to be down between professionals, family, friends, service users to reduce the problem of abuse significantly.

There are many factors which are related to physical abuse. If a service user is stressed and suffering from a mental and physical impairment it is highly stressful. Individuals who do not have the information, resources and requisite skills can lead to elder abuse and neglect. Another factor is dependency or impairment of the older person. It has been argued that as an older a adult becomes dependency increases and so does the stress and frustration of the service user.

Social Isolation: this is another effect of abuse. If you are socially isolating yourself from society it could be due to being abused.

Individuals who are abused as children are more likely to become part of violence. Violence is learned as a form of acceptable behaviour in childhood due to: conflict, anger or tension. If these feelings arise the service user is more likely to be at risk of abuse.

A caregiver who suffers from such problems as alcoholism, drug addiction, and/or an emotional disorder (e.g. a personality disorder) is more likely to become an abuser than an individual who do not suffer from such problems.

Referenced from: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/abuse.html.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse is a common type of abuse and can occur to any individual. Statistics and research show the vital importance of sexual abuse in the UK and the effects of being abused. It is reported that only 30% of rape/sexual assault victims age 65 years or older report to the police. This states that more needs to be done in order for victims to know the importance of reporting abuse. Campaigns should be advertised in a more efficient way, lectures should be given, talks by police and professionals who deal with abuse. This will ensure that the message of abuse is given correctly.

‘In one study of suspected elder sexual abuse, females were assaulted six times as much as males’. This statistic implies how females are at a larger risk of sexual abuse therefore females should be the main target group of sexual abuse. It is vital to express the importance of sexual abuse through different forms e.g. campaigns, health checks, NHS, local organizations, training should be made available for staff and managers.

A study of older rape victims (age range of 55-87; mean age of 68.8) it was found that:

• 79% were attacked by strangers;

• 50.9% of the older women sustained genital injuries, compared with 13.2% of the control group. Of the women who suffered genital injuries, 37% were severe enough to require surgical repair.

This shows how most cases are not relevant to being sexually abused by family members as more than half, 79% are strangers. This implies police protection and community officers need to be alert and have officers in every area to ensure attacks like these are prevented.

Sexual abuse can be extremely brutal and causes serious damage. Older women are likely of being sexual abused more than younger women as abusers feel they are more vulnerable, fragile. Professionals should work together to ensure the older generation are protected. This may be by: ensuring doors are fully locked and protected, double glaze windows with locks etc.

There are many programmes, websites, campaigns which help people who have suffered from sexual abuse to overcome this. One of them is: Ontario Network of Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Centres.

This organisation helps ensure women, children and men who are victims or survivors of sexual abuse or domestic violence have access to comprehensive and support to address their needs and medical needs. They work alongside nurses, social workers, physicians.

Their main role is support members of sexual abuse. In addition, through collaboration in research, education and training activities, the Network strives to establish standardization in service provision across the province. We also act as the voice of the 35 centres, lobbying for change and working to influence public policy. Together with our members, we work to ensure that victims and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence receive the highest quality of care and support possible.

Referenced from: http://www.satcontario.com/en/view.php?key=34&lang=en.

It is vital to tackle abuse and ensure measures are in place to prevent it. It is not only the victim that suffers but family f the victim, friends etc.

I have attached with my assignment leaflets on different aspects of abuse which illustrates the importance and the ways to tackle problems to ensure the risk of abuse is reduced throughout the UK.

P4 and M2

The potential abuse in health and social care setting can be found in many ways. In a care setting there it is slightly easier to identify but if this is done under a setting where the elderly person is being looked after at home, they may be abused and will be harder to identify. For example, an elderly client is living at home with family members taking care of them. There could be more than one person which is abusing the individual. There could be two or more people that are abusing the elderly relative. They may have lack of privacy in the care home and cannot do anything without other people checking up on them and not giving them time alone to so whatever they want to. An example can be if the family member forces the elderly person to leave the locks on the bathroom door open when they go to the toilet. Another example can be if the elderly client’s mail is opened by the family. It could be every so often that the person’s benefits come through the post and they open the letter and not tell the client anything about the letter. As the client may suffer from certain difficulties, they may not be able to contact anyone and tell them that they are not receiving their benefits. They may also suffer from psychological abuse from the family which can take part in many ways. Name calling may be done to put the individual down. The family may also use the elderly client as an excuse all the time and blaming the client all the time when it has nothing to do with the client at all. There is an imbalance of power here and the elderly person cannot stand up and speak up for themselves. They cannot really go to someone and tell them that their family members are abusing them; no one would really believe them. Also the family members that are doing the abuse will just use the excuse that they are disable and suffer from all these mental conditions so don’t believe them. They will then start to bully the elderly person even more because they tried to talk and tell people that they are being abused. They will then deny the individuals rights in ways that they cannot possibly do anything at all like for example making the person go to bed early and not taking them out or not letting them go on leisure activities.

4 health care settings

Homes that provide residential care confused older people

There are many forms of abuse that can take place in such a setting. They can be as follows:

Isolation as the person could lock all the residents in a small room and go out for 10 minutes

Neglect could be another abuse as food and drink might not be provided for the individuals

Physical abuse can be present e.g. when a client is incontinent and keeps soiling themselves every couple of hours

Verbal abuse such as swearing

Financial abuse could take place as the elderly person wouldn’t realise if their money has been stolen or borrowed

Sexual abuse could take place as the abuser may force the client to perform inappropriate acts or the abuser my touch the client inappropriately

Long stay hostels for homeless men

There is mass amount of psychological abuse that can take place in the situation. Now a man has lost his home, they will feel worthless; have nowhere to live so they have to live in a hostel which may be no where as cosy as their own home. The person may not feel like it is a home to them. The residents can be mocked by workers and other people as they are homeless. Also because they are homeless, they will be called many nasty names such as ‘junkie’ or ‘gypsy’ and would be neglected by food not given to them. Also people may not want to speak up and say anything as they have nowhere else to go.

Supported flats for people with learning difficulties

People that live in this type of accommodation will have a number of learning difficulties which means that they are vulnerable to all kinds of abuse. Some people may not even be able to speak up for themselves which means they cannot defend themselves against abuse. However, they can get an advocate which they can get which will speak on behalf of them. Abuse in this situation can occur in many forms. Financial abuse will play a major part here. The abuser will be in the clients home which means they have access to valuables and money all the time and as the person has learning difficulties, they will take advantage of this. Money which is sent by the family might also be taken and the client will have no notice of it at all. Other forms of abuse can belittle a person tremendously and damage the person psychologically. Constant abuse like this will encourage the person to have suicidal thought about them and the name calling would not help. Physical abuse can be inevitable but will leave marks that will look suspicious to other people. However, these can be disguised to look like slips and trips. The main reason abuse occurs in this setting is because of the level of trust people have letting complete strangers into their homes to look after them. People just take advantage and abuse it.

Home care services that provide support for physically disabled people in their own home

It is obvious that disabled people cannot take part in everyday activities; this is where the person may take advantage of the situation. The abuse in this situation can take form in the following:

Financial abuse could take place if the client trusts the care worker with their personal belongings and where they are kept

Physical abuse can occur if the client is stressed about e.g. bereavement, this would make the abuser more likely to abuse

Sexual abuse can be done when the person cannot defend themselves

Neglect them e.g. not helping them to go to the toilet

Isolation could take place as the disabled individual may be locked up in a room

I will give some examples of where abuse in an health and social care environment potential abuse could occur.

In a care center and residential home abuse may be more easily reported and seen by others, whoever abuse at home is more active than we think. Because the elderly person may be at home with no other family members the carer could quite easily abuse and get away with it. This also happens with family members. I once read in the news not so long ago, a son abusing his mother, this was emotional, physical and financial abuse. The reason for this was due to a drug addiction and the thought of never being caught. He said his mum and no one to talk to and no one would ever find out. The mother later made statements to say, she was threatened and beaten if she would say anything to the social services or anyone of authority. The news story is an extreme case of abuse, which does occur quiet, allot, even though it may seem surprising and upsetting. However there are many other types of abuse that take place In places of care such as residential homes and care centers. Even though these forms of abuse may not be as bad as the example in the above paragraph, they are still quiet sad and the side effects could be equally as painful. Neglect could be an example. A care service user in a care center may be ignored and have no rights in terms of dependency and choice. I would like you to understand these types abuse may not be done on purpose but the effects are still upsetting. I will give one example from a placement experience, confidentiality and dignity was at stake when one carer said, come on MRS X its time for medication, you wouldn’t want cancer to kill you without taking your medication. The career clearly said something very in appropriate and hurt the elderly lady’s feelings. The fact that everyone found out she had cancer due to the lack of respect and breaking confidentiality was twice as bad and even more upsetting. It seemed lioke this particular encounter was delibartate abuse, however these matters do arise without intention of abuse but still may be seen as abuse by others or at least the victim.

Potential abuse in 4 health and social care:

People with learning difficulties with supported flats –

The people, who do decide to live in such accommodations, will have learning disabilities and consequently they are vulnerable to a stream of abuse, some may not have the ability to defend them against what’s hapening or speak out to someone, in turn they can get an advocate to speak on behalf of them. Abuse can increase in such situations, such as financial abuse, care givers or workers can willingly take money or valuables at their will due to the nature of them being in the client’s house in order to direct help, alsos it is possible that all money that family may snd can taken or spent without the clients consent. Even though financial abuse must never take place, other forms of abuse those are more detrimental to morale cn happen on a regular base if a vulnerable person is left with such a care giver, verbal abuse does not only dishearten a person, but leaves a mark that can scar people for life, feelings of solitude and despair can easily twist into suicidal thoughts. Also physical abuse is always a likelihood, even though the perpetrators know assaulting will leave tell tale bruises or odd looking marks, but these can be easily masqueraded as falls, trips or nasty bumps. I consider the main reason such persistent types of abuse occur in care settings is for the reason that if the trust that so many people are keen too put in the hands of absolute strangers, such people feel empowered at the responsibilities that have been bestowed on to them and consequently feel entitled to abse it.

Support for disabled individuals in their homes –

As you may understand disabled people may not be able to take part in everyday activities this may be seen as a danger to them as the care worker could use this to their benefit. Mistreatment and abiuse may be such as:

Financial abuse could take place if the vicitm trusts the care worker with their personal positions and if the abuser knows where they are kept

Not meet their rights, e.g. no choice of food vegetarian or veegan and even meat

Neglect them – e.g. not aiding them to go to the toilet, not helping with the "top shelves in there room"

Isolation could take place as the disabled person may be enclosed in a room all alone without choice of moving

Physical abuse ths could be a result if the care worker is stressed, this would make the abuser more likely to abuse, the victim may be abused foer no fault or have nothing to do with anything, for example if a service user keeps wetting their pants the carer may get fed up and annoyed and think by hitting them they will stop wetting themselves, it could well be out of frustration.

Sexual abuse – as the person is disalbled and would be able to defend themselves and individuals with learning disabilities may not understand or may not be able to report the incident

As I have mentioned before the above abuse may be the result of the person suffering from psychological problems such as feeling worthless this is also known as low self esteem this may make the disabled person to withdraw from society and other surroundings

Men in hostels for long periods –

This type of care can consist of immense amounts of psychological abuse, as the person would by now feel of no value for example losing their home. men in places like this culd be mocked by the workers as they are homeless. They could also be neglected and rundown and neglecyed of food. Sexual abuse is uncommon on the other hand it could happen. Now the focal reasons why the individual may not speek up could be they are merely because the place they are is a last resort residence for them

Care for elderly at residential homes –

Penalty could be one of the abuses that the care workers would impose upon the old mystified elderly at the residential homes. Other abuse would be present such as:

Verbal abuse such as swearing and also mocking the individual

Neglect could be another abuse as food and drink wouldn’t be provided for the residents

Financial abuse could take place as the elderly would realize if their money has been stolen/missing or if money is borrowed by the abuser and not returned, this pure intention of not returning the money

Sexual abuse could take place as the abused may be asked to perform such acts for th abuser, this could be from un appropriate touching to full on sex

Physical abuse such as stated punishment if the individual was to make a mess of their area or even if the carer was a little annoyed and frustrated at the present time

Isolation could be another abuse that may be performed e.g. locking all the residnts in a small room, even worse locking on person in a room without allowing them to speak to anyone or or move, this may happen to someone in their own rom when ill, it can then be used as an excuse of infection controle or preventing disease. Psychological abuse can occur if the individuals are not able to leave certain areas of the residential home and are forced to stay in certain areas