Supporting and Safeguarding Adults Free Essay Example

Introduction

‘All care homes should have CCTV’, says woman who used E120 covert camera to capture shocking footage showing nurse abusing and taunting her 92-year-old mother-in-law’

An elderly lady living in a dementia care home, Bridie Rees was shouted at and abused by a nurse she knew and trusted called Faderera Bello. Her family noticed bruises on body after a visit and set up a camera in her room, this caught on camera that Bello had been abusing Bridie. She was sentenced to four months in jail for an account of neglect.

The relationship between this carer and her service user is an unsupportive one. Rights, respect and needs were all deliberately discounted by the professional. The service user’s rights were not respected as under the human rights act she was abused and verbally degraded by the person who was to care for her. She also wasn’t respected in the sense that her family pay money for her to be cared for and treated properly.

The service users’ needs were also not met as she needs to be happy, respected and safe in her home, however this was violated. This does not make a supportive relationship at all, as listening skills are also key but assumingly Bridie’s cries for help were dismissed

This can have a very negative impact on the service user as she has now sustained physical injury from the abuse meaning bruises and other potential forms of harm, as well as possible trust issue that may have developed as a result.

The carer was supposed to treat her respectfully and this wasn’t the result, this can lead to her becoming is and upset due to the treatment she received. In the long term this could turn into depression and anxiety issues. Read about egislation that relates to recording storage and sharing of information

Other effects of specifically physical abuse

Other effects of specifically physical abuse can develop into more serious problems such as self-mutilation, and a lack to live. Hopefully in the long Bridie went back to being a safe and caring environment with people that respect her right to care.

What should have been done in this case to reduce the risk of abuse can include the use of CRB checks, presumably Bello was checked out prior to being employed, however if not then this is something that should have been done in order to prevent something like this happening to a service user. Another way to prevent this from happening could have been regular observations, if Bello had oberservations on a regular basis then that could have prevented the abuse from happening. Finally, as this article states, another preventative measure that could have been put into place is CCTV, with that the abuse that Bridie was subjected to would have been caught a lot sooner.

‘Texas to investigate wave of teacher-student sex scandals: Senate probe as number of to investigate wave of inappropriate relationships reaches unprecedented seven-year high’

Texas Education Agency reported there has been a 53 per cent increase in number of student teacher relationship probes over past seven years. In 2015 alone, the agency was asked to review 188 cases of suspected teacher misconduct. An expert said during Senate committee hearing that social media was helping foster inappropriate relationships between teachers and students.

These relationships are inappropriate and unsupportive because of the type of relationship they are a teacher and student should not engage in a sexual or intimate relationship as this contradicts their aim to teach the student. It becomes unsupportive because the teacher can start abusing the students trust and cause them to fail in their academic studies. They don’t promote their rights or their needs. Tailoring to their sexual needs is not something they are obligated or required to do as for it being a professional relationship, it becomes inappropriate. It is also unsupportive the teacher then has no regard for the student’s respect, as they are not being respected as a student or another individual.

This can have an adverse effect on the student because they can begin to suffer in their academic studies. They may also feel like they are being taken advantage of by someone who they are meant to be able to trust and count on for support. Later on they may be bullied or subjected to torment by fellow peers due to the nature of how they conversed with a professional in their life. The teacher will most likely be imprisoned and the student move to another college or university to limit the amount of guilt and hardship they feel as a result of their actions. The student can also develop mental health problems such as depression and anxiety if their emotions about the situation are prominent.

This should have been prevented by having every teacher CRB checked and have regular observations, just like the case wit Bello and Bridie. This way the risk of abuse would havce been minimised by as any offenses in their previous careers would be known and they wouldn’t be emnployed. As well as observations means early detections of abuse would be noticed before it became a substantial problem and have a bigger effect on the students it happened to.

Case Study – Counsellor and Service user

Counsellor and service user, Jennifer, couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want to get married. Experiencing her parents’ divorce when she was little had put her off the idea for life. Even after five years of being with Dexter, Jennifer couldn’t see any point in changing the laid-back dynamic she had worked hard to maintain only Dexter felt the same. Jennifer and Dexter’s relationship was born out of two very fulfilling lifestyles juggling hobbies, friends, travelling and family. The decision to move in together was meant to provide the couple with more stability and the opportunity to spend more time together. However, soon after their relationship hit problems. Whilst Dexter was starting to realize that he wanted Jennifer and was happier to spend time at home, Jennifer was struggling to accept Dexter’s approach to domestic life, which made her feel even further from marriage than ever.

“I thought that moving in together wouldn’t change anything, I loved going out and seeing friends but having our own place felt more permanent and I wanted to enjoy it together. Jennifer carried on as if nothing had changed, going out most nights – we were living together but hardly saw each other.” – Jennifer. Dexter felt frustrated that Jennifer was choosing going out over spending time together, he snapped at her whenever she talked about nights out which usually led to an argument. Jennifer couldn’t understand why he was so annoyed, going out together had always been fun in the past. “When I planned a night out with friends I immediately felt bad about telling Dexter, I tried to include him but he didn’t seem to be interested. When I did go out I felt guilty for leaving him at home.” – Dexter. Both felt unable to talk to each other about how they felt.

This case study is supportive because the counsellor allows the service users to choose their own methods after plan and care. The counsellor would provide person centred planning because it will help them to identify what actions need to be made and how it will have a positive effect on both of the service users, listening skills are needed because if the provider isn’t listening then there could be misinterpretation and any carried out methods of planning could be insufficient, the service users have the rights to autonomy and therefore are entitle to decision making and the counsellor has the right to interfere with the case as they will need to know what happened why and what to do next, the counsellor will need to respect any opinions that are made as well as what the users are wanting to do as it is based around them, the counsellor is professional so should potentially get sacked if they are not meeting any needs or requirements of the service users and finally confidentiality is one key essential as all information should be stored locked filing cabinet and shouldn’t be shared with anyone in a else’s apart from others who are qualified and have the professions to help in this case. Skills that are needed and are essential for use by professionals in a relationship are:

• Ask about their feelings and listen
• Don’t offer advice without asking permission and you understand
• Reflect back what you hear so they know you were listening
• It is not a good idea to tie their feeling in with your own experience but question them about their feelings
• Listen and do not be impatient to get a word in that drains
• Pay attention to the people around you to notice any negative energy people or positive energy that makes people feel good as we all have different
• Do not judge the situation and tell them what they should values Be empathetic by putting yourself in their shoes cannot go out on a planned
• Be sympathetic even if you are disappointed that they evening out.
• Communicate any differences in a sensitive way
• Be emotionally honest which may mean being a little vulnerable

Multi-agencies and Safeguarding Adults

Multi-agency involves cooperation between several organizations, especially in crime prevention, social welfare programmes, or research. Having a multiple professionals involved in planning care and support for individuals helps to asses and work out, any issues surrounding the care of the individual that could’ve been missed. This is prevented by the use of different professionals who have different areas of expertise and knowledge. Another positive aspect of a multi-professional involvement means that different professions can advise and assist on the care needed to be done. Therefore balancing the care amongst a few individuals can mean that each factor affecting the individual is considered and dealt with effectively by the appropriate health care professionals.

This can also help to shorten the waiting list for other service users. A benefit of having multiple professionals involved in planning the support for an individual is having the ability to access information about their progress which can be shared by all the professionals. This can highlight areas that need to have more work done, and knowledge about what areas in their care and wellbeing that have been more successful.

The case of Bridie Rees and Bello

In the case of Bridie Rees and Bello, the multi-agency team failed Bridie as a service user and did not adequately safeguard her from harm. What should have been in place is effective communication, notes taken, a common goal, understanding of the individual and regular contact. The fact that they failed to protect Bridie from harm and she was abused and found out to be so by a family member shows that the multi-agency team failed her by not following the rules of one. A law that comes into place with this case study is the Data Protection act. The strategies and policies following were to keep staff trained and to safeguard the service users. By having the safeguarding policy, this should’ve meant that all suspicions of abuse were reported and then investigated into. This happened but not by the professionals working with Bridie when they should’ve been the first to notice or pick up on the signs. This straight away means that the staff at her home sailed to whistle bl9ow or report and misconduct that had occurred.

The Human Rights Act 1998 (also known as the Act or the HRA) came into force in the United Kingdom in October 2000. It is composed of a series of sections that have the effect of codifying the protections in the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. All public bodies (such as courts, police, local governments, hospitals, publicly funded schools, and others) and other bodies carrying out public functions have to comply with the Convention rights. This means, among other things, that individuals can take human rights cases in domestic courts; they no longer have to go to Strasbourg to argue their case in the European Court of Human Rights.

This legislation includes: The right to life, freedom from torture and inhumane or degrading treatment, right to liberty and security, freedom from slavery and forced labour, right to a fair trail, no punishment without law, respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence, freedom of thought, belief and religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, right to marry and start any family, protection from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedoms, right to peaceful enjoyment of your property, right to education and lastly the right to participate in free elections. This comes into effect within Bridie rees case at the Snaresbrook crown court because her human rights were denied and abused. One of the key points is ‘freedom from torture and inhumane or degrading treatment’. Bridie was consistently poked and proded by Bello as well as taunted and shouted at. This is a clear violation of this particular aspect of this law.

When it comes to safeguarding adults it includes:

• Protecting their rights to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect.
• People and organisations working together to prevent the risk of abuse or neglect, and to stop them from happening.
• Making sure people’s wellbeing is promoted, taking their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs into account.
• This can be done by:
• Using information we receive (particularly when concerns are raised about abuse, harm or neglect) to look at the risks to people who use care services.
• Referring concerns to local councils and/or the police for further investigation.
• Carrying out inspections, where we talk to people who use services to help us identify safeguarding concerns.
• Publishing our findings on safeguarding in our inspection reports.
• Taking action if we find that care services don’t have suitable arrangements to keep people safe.
• Working with partners such as the police, local councils, health agencies, other regulators and government departments.
• Taking part in multi-agency children’s safeguarding inspections to get a picture of children’s and young people’s experiences and how well they are being safeguarded.

A working strategy to reduce the risk of abuse in a health and social care setting is staff training. This is one of the best strategies an agency can use is to provide extensive training opportunities for their staff. Such trainings might include: human rights; how to identify and report abuse and neglect; stress management; non-violent restraint/intervention techniques; CPR, and others that may be needed. There are many benefits to having regular staff training. These include:

• The employer gets to choose the skills that their employees gain from training
• Targeting skills to meet the requirements for the needs of the organisation
• Better customer service
• Better work safety
• Productivity in employees improves
• Improvements in employee loyalty and staff retention
• Makes for happy and motivated employees

Another strategy is storing sand recording information.

Advantages of keeping good records or case notes include:

• provides accurate records of the agency’s contact with the client and aid in continuity of case management between co-workers
• aids/jogs memory as over time it can be difficult to recall the specifics of each case
• lends credibility to service user if one is called to give evidence of a particular fact or matter
• may add credence to a claim by a client about sexual abuse or domestic violence incidents
• protects the worker and the agency, particularly from later claims of negligence

By including and referencing to these laws, strategies and policies, it means a reduced chance of failing as a multi-agency team. It also means that service users are less likely to slip through the net sand become subjected to abuse and/or harm from their carers. If the staff at Snaresbrook Crown Court had followed these then they could have prevented the abuse that occurred. For example, if the staff had noticed any kind of abuse then they could have whistle blown or reported it to their management or supervising officers, this then should’ve been investigated. If it was reported and not found to be investigated upon then they should look into why an investigation did not happen as a result. Also in this particular example, Bridies human rights were not taken into account and violated by someone she was supposed to be able to trust. She was failed by the multi-agency team in this respect and will suffer as a consequence.

This is a fault of every professional involved in the care of Bridie. Bello, the offender, should have had the appropriate training to know and understand that the actions she was taking agaisnt Bridie were wrong. This is partly the control and responsibility of the manager(s) at Snarebrook and of Bello. Overall, all professionals failed bridie in this because one, bridie was incompetant and unsuitible to care for her as a service user, two the managers of this home should have made sure that Bello was suitible and have checked the risk that she may or may not have been to the service users in the home and three any other professionals inviolved. E.g if a doctor was involved, did they notice the marks on her, did they report it asnd if so, why wasn’t it acted upon.

Another example could be the other staff within the care home and whether ot not bello was the primary carer for Bridie. Also the superior staff at snarebrook could have had different preventative measures in place such as observations. If had observations of her work then mispractice may have been picked up on earlier or been prevented completley. Another safety measure could’ve been CCTV within the care home as this was not a procedure already in place. It had to come down to the family members of Bridie to catch out what was going wrong within this care home that caused a loved member of their family to become harmed.