Vulnerable adults
If you believe that a vulnerable adult is being abused you should contact the Council. A vulnerable adult is any person aged 18 or over who is in need of community care services by reason of:
- Mental or other disability, age or illness and
- Who is or may be unable to take care of him/herself or
- Unable to protect him/herself from significant harm or serious exploitation
- Report adult abuse
Where to find help
You will be listened to and you will be supported. Alternatively, speak to the police, doctor or nurse, or any of the organisations listed below.
Care homes
If you are concerned about bad practices, poor quality care or abuse in a care home and you need further advice contact the following organisations.
Abuse or mistreatment
- Can be a violation on individuals’ human or civil rights by another person or persons;
- May consist of a single act or repeated acts;
- Can occur in any relationship or setting;
- May result in harm to, or serious exploitation of, the person subjected to it;
- Physical, including hitting, slapping, punching, kicking, misuse of medication, restraint, or inappropriate sanctions;
- Sexual, including rape and sexual assault or sexual acts to which the person has not consented or was pressured into consenting to;
- Psychological, including emotional abuse, threats, humiliation, intimidation, verbal abuse;
- Financial or material, including theft, fraud, exploitation, the misuse or misappropriation of property, possessions or benefits;
- Neglect, including ignoring medical or physical care needs, the withholding of adequate food, heat, clothing and medication;
- Discriminatory, including racist, sexist, based on a person’s disability, and other forms of similar treatment;
- Institutional abuse or mistreatment by a regime or by any individual within any building where care is provided.
Although the above list is fairly comprehensive it is not exhaustive.
Who does it
Sadly it can be anyone including ones nearest and dearest. Research by Action on Elder Absue suggests that as many as one in 11 older people in the UK are mistreated or neglected by those they trust the most. Two thirds of these are abused by members of their own family. Care staff, too, can be abusers. There are many examples of this, including those where the abusers have deliberately chosen to work in environments where there will be vulnerable people, such as those with learning disabilities.
Any types of abuse may be carried out as the result of deliberate actions, negligence or ignorance.
Where does it happen
Abuse can happen anywhere – in a person’s home, in the street, in a residential or nursing home, at a day centre or resource centre, in a hospital or indeed any place where vulnerable people might be.
What is being done
Cheshire West and Chester Social Services have the lead role in the inter-agency Policy, Procedures and Guidance Document on the protection of vulnerable adults from abuse.
If you report adult abuse, you will be asked for basic information about the person you are concerned about, and who is the alleged abuser. You will be asked about yourself, and what you heard or saw. Information will then be shared on a need to know basis, but you will be kept informed about who has to be told, for example, the police if a crime may have been committed.
Together all the relevant agencies will work with the person who may be being abused, to establish what has happened, and what action the person wants taking next. Work will also be done with the alleged abuser, and multi-disciplinary options will be created which will prevent, reduce or stop further abuse from happening.
Break the silence - contact social services, or any of the organisation listed, you will be believed and given advice about what to do.
Information for professionals working with vulnerable adults
Information for the public
Further information
For further information about vulunerable adults visit the Staying Safe pages on the West Cheshire Local Offer website.
For further information about adult safeguarding please view our Safeguarding Adults Policy or visit the Cheshire West Local Adult Safeguarding Board (LASB) website below.