‘A lad tried to get hold of my boobs, so I kicked him’: an examination of attempts by adults with learning difficulties to initiate their own safeguarding

Barriers and Enablers to Safeguarding Children and Adults within a Disability Services Context: Insights from an Australian Delphi Study

“…The picture described by staff and management was sophisticated and mirrored to large parts existing research. However, notably, participants omitted some elements of safeguarding previously identified in the research literature, such as having a better understanding of different risk profiles (Horner‐Johnson and Drum ; Sullivan and Knutson ), developing a suite of appropriate responses to maltreatment (Hollomotz ), the management of challenging behaviour (Emerson et al ; Adams and Allen ; Feldman et al ; Whittington and Burns ), and the importance of augmented communication proficiency (Cooke and Standen ; Morris ), among other issues. Participants highlighted the fact that the effective prevention of abuse and neglect involving people with disabilities within an organizational context should be based on an organizational culture that fosters and respects the rights of service users.…”

“…Research conducted during the 1980s and 1990s brought to the fore that weaknesses in policies and procedures can undermine organizational safeguards. Researchers identified poor human resource policies and recruitment protocols (Marchetti and McCartney 1990); lack of reporting guidelines and whistle-blower protection (Cambridge 1998;Marchetti and McCartney 1990); lack of organizational openness, multiagency collaboration (Cambridge and Parkes 2006;Rees and Manthorpe 2010), and transparency (Potts and Fido 1991;Rees and Manthorpe 2010); lack of clearly articulated standards of care; and a lack of clearly defined appropriate responses to allegations of maltreatment (Hollomotz 2012) as risk factors for abuse and neglect. In many Australian jurisdictions, policy and compliance frameworks have been strengthened to address some of these issues (Robinson and Chenoweth 2011).…”

“…However, recent studies also suggest that people and particularly those with intellectual disabilities are rarely party to risk management decisions, and knowledge gaps have been identified regarding how service users with disabilities are best to be involved in safeguarding and risk management decisions (see, for instance, Wallcraft ). Moreover, there is some evidence that if people with disability, and particularly intellectual disability, report an incident of abuse, appropriate assistance is not always provided (Hollomotz ).…”

“…Indeed, building the capacity of staff and management to work within a framework that emphasizes clients' rights and to identify and address maltreatment is a precondition if staff and clients are to be enabled to take action. Training and mentoring programmes need to ensure that staff and management know and respect the rights of service users (Marchetti and McCartney ), have a knowledge of different risk profiles (Horner‐Johnson and Drum ; Sullivan ), and can identify signs of abuse or neglect and respond appropriately to them (Mitchell et al ; Parley ; Rees and Manthorpe ; Davies and Jenkins ; Higgins and Swain ; Cooke and Standen ; Hollomotz ). Clearly, if the rights of service users are to be respected, the use of augmented communication methods should form part of a canon of professional skills that are required when exploring safeguarding topics (Cooke and Standen ; Morris ).…”

Supporting People with Intellectual Disability Who Have Experienced Abuse: Clinical Psychologists' Perspectives

“…While organizational staff are alert to the possibility of sexual abuse, they may be unclear regarding their roles (Brown, Hunt, & Stein, 1994). Further, individuals may make attempt to initiate their own safeguarding, and fail to achieve appropriate assistance (Hollomotz, 2012). This is despite the fact that people with ID can articulate their emotional landscape and experiences of abuse (Northway, Jenkins, Jones, Howarth, & Hodges, 2013).…”