The characteristics and causes of adult abuse are under‐researched, so the opportunity to make recommendations for practice has been limited. Action to prevent or minimise abuse…
Abstract
The characteristics and causes of adult abuse are under‐researched, so the opportunity to make recommendations for practice has been limited. Action to prevent or minimise abuse in care settings has to be informed by a reasoned view of causation if it is to be effective. This article describes a model of care quality and explores its relevance to abuse within professional care services.
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The purpose of this paper is to review the reasons underlying the slow rate of progress towards developing a comprehensive policy underpinning for adult safeguarding in England…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the reasons underlying the slow rate of progress towards developing a comprehensive policy underpinning for adult safeguarding in England and proposes long-term solutions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a model of policy change to argue that adult safeguarding has been over-reliant on case histories to define its policy problems and influence its politics, while making insufficient progress on data collection and analysis. It uses examples from the parallel discipline of public health to explore four challenges, or “problems”, relevant to the further development of the knowledge base underpinning adult safeguarding policy.
Findings
Four recommendations emerge for closing the adult safeguarding “knowledge gap”, including the development of a national research strategy for adult safeguarding. In a fifth recommendation the paper also proposes a clearer recognition of the contribution that local public health professionals can make to local adult safeguarding policy making and programme development.
Practical implications
The first four recommendations of this paper would serve as the basis for developing a national research strategy for adult safeguarding. The fifth would strengthen the contribution of local public health departments to safeguarding adults boards.
Originality/value
The author is unaware of the existence of any other review of the limitations of the adult safeguarding knowledge base as a foundation for policy making, or which proposes strategic solutions. The work is valuable for its practical proposals.
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The preparation of this paper was prompted by publicity and research evidence of neglect/abuse of older persons in residential care. It sets out to present a new way of combating…
Abstract
The preparation of this paper was prompted by publicity and research evidence of neglect/abuse of older persons in residential care. It sets out to present a new way of combating neglect/abuse of individual residents, drawing also on preliminary findings from a long‐term research project on guardianship. This project, provisionally entitled Guardianship Relations: Models for ground rules, looks at the situations of all vulnerable persons irrespective of settings whereas the following notes concentrate on the need for guardians for persons who reside in homes for the elderly (residential care homes/RCHs).