Abuse in Residential Settings (1 Day)

Our understanding of what is acceptable in terms of our treatment of vulnerable people changes over time. Legislative demands and professional evolution have more recently ensured that those providing social care and support have a base line of acceptable practice so that some of the gross abuses that occurred within the large institutions is less common in community settings today. Nevertheless, changing definitions of abuse now lead to us identifying more subtle and hidden abuse.

This course aims to help support staff understand the history of abuse and how this might replay in practice today. It likewise aims to help staff understand their responsibilities and alert others when there is concern.

The Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course learners should understand:

• A range of definitions:
        -Good Practice
        -Ethics and values
        -Abuse
        -Oppression
        -Marginalisation
        -Discrimination
        -Harassment
• The guidelines that are available regarding good practice e.g.
        -Social Care Association
        -Code of Practice for Social Care Workers etc.
• What the following terms mean:
        -Physical abuse
        -Sexual abuse
        -Psychological abuse
        -Neglect & Acts of Omission
        -Financial & Material abuse
        -Discriminatory abuse
• How these manifest in residential settings:
        -Overtly
        -With more subtlety
• How people were abused in institutions
• How families might abuse:
        -What we can do in response
        -What we cannot do
• The difficulty in discovering abuse committed by colleagues
• The difficulty confronting abuse committed by more senior staff
• What can we do?
• How others might abuse (e.g. Doctors, solicitors, drivers)
• What can we do?
• Statistics demonstrating the incidence of abuse
• Avoiding abuse:
        -Creating respectful cultures in the workplace
        -Application of care/support plans
        -Monitoring of key work
        -Team meetings
        -Supervision
        -Advocacy
        -Standard setting
        -Monitoring of practice
• Identifying the signs of abuse
• Responding to suspected abuse
• Responding to actual abuse
• The legal framework
• Organisational Policy

Training methods:

• Warm up exercises
• Tutor presentations
• Discussion in pairs
• Small and larger groups
• Video
• Word shower method
• Handouts

CP135/5.9