Safeguarding Adults

Amongst all the general casework - pavement parking, dangerous driving, etc was an excellent seminar on safeguarding vulnerable adults in our community. We hear a lot about children and how we need to look after them but sometimes forget that we have adults who need a lot of care also. The big difference that makes for difficulties is that adults often have the mental capacity to make a decision to opt out of help. We wrestled with case studies which illustrated the kind of decisions that have to be made by police and social workers on a weekly if not daily basis - is someone who chooses to live in a dirty uncomfortable home really making a proper decision? Is the carer abusing the cared for person or vice versa? Emotional blackmail is also a form of abuse! At the end of the session I think all councillors were heartily relieved that we aren't the people who have to make the decisions but also were happy that the professionals involved in Stockton are doing a good job. They need more resources to deal with an increasing number of referrals but that's for the budget setting meetings!