Induction Standards for Northern Ireland
Standard 5: Recognise and respond to abuse and neglect: Recognise the signs and symptoms of abuse and neglect
It is important that you know how to recognise abuse or harm. Sometimes these are very obvious, but at other times they are much more subtle and so harder to detect. You will probably attend some form of safeguarding training, very early in your employment.
If you haven’t been told about it yet, ask.
Look at the following resources:
- Northern Ireland government guidance Adult abuse: Recognising adult abuse and what to do about it! Guidance for staff
- SCIE Care Skillsbase, Skill Check 36: Safeguarding. Gives a useful set of definitions of types of abuse.
- NHS Choices: information for carers about vulnerable adults. This describes very clearly what abuse is. You should ignore the ‘What to do and who to contact’ section, as your employer will have that information in their own policy.
- Your own employer’s policy. Make sure that you clearly understand it.
Check your understanding
- Check that you know the signs and symptoms of abuse or neglect
Did you know?
- Unfortunately, harm and abuse are more common that you might expect.
Record what you have learned
- Your organisation may have a Learning Record Form. If so, use that to write down what you have learned and any questions you might have. Otherwise you can use our Learning Record Form.