Explain Types of Abuse Vulnerable Adults May Experience?

What is abuse?

Treat with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly.

What types of abuse are there?

o Physical

o Self-harm

o Sexual abuse

o Financial/material abuse

o Psychological abuse

o Institutional abuse

o Neglect or acts of omission

When reporting abuse, an alert is when there is suspected abuse and it has been made aware to someone. A referral is when abuse has been reported and dealt with by local authorities. During this time period, 61 per cent of referrals were for women and 62 per cent were for adults aged 65 or over. Half of the referrals (51 per cent) were for adults with a physical disability.

What is physical abuse?

This is a form of abuse that is carried out by another party with the intentions to cause physical pain, injury or other physical suffering or bodily-harm. Physical abuse was accounted for 28% of all allegations of abuse in 2012-13. An example of physical abuse would be a service user who is usually actively involved in all group activities and gets on with all of the carers and other service users. However, recently they have been shying away and jumping when people touch them. You notice a few bruises on their arm that they try to cover up. This could be an example of someone who is being physically abused.

What does this type of abuse involve?

There are many different ways that physical abuse can be carried out. These include hitting, burning, misuse of medication, the use of force that results in pain and change in individual’s natural physical state.

What are indications of this?

Sings of physical abuse are normally quite apparent. They can include bruises, fractures, and hair loss in one area, flinching, paranoia and lacerations.

What is self-harm?

Self-harm is described as deliberate and intentional harm to oneself. This can sometimes be linked with psychological disorders. An example of this would be a young woman who used to be an outgoing and confident service user. However,...