Editorial
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200800001 |
| Pages | 2-5 |
| Date | 01 February 2008 |
| Published date | 01 February 2008 |
| Author | Margaret Flynn |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
2©Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Limited The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 10 Issue 1 • February 2008
Editorial
In 2008 there are many lenses through
which we can regard abuse, including those
provided by journalists, practitioners,
researchers, novelists, lawyers, filmmakers,
documentarists, teachers, politicians, the
abused themselves and eyewitnesses with
smart phones that have video recorders.
Whether in the trading rooms of Societé
Génerale or the front room of a confused
elderly relative, private interest pursued at the
expense of others has a long history. Closer
to home, uppermost in the minds of MPs
exercised by NorthernRock’s‘funding model’
is the substantial failureof regulation. Having
found Northern Rock’s board ‘reckless,’ they
propose that bank customers should have new
protection in the formof a ‘special protection
fund’ and a ‘special resolution scheme’ for
banks. It adds a compelling spin to Hilary
Brown’s description of ‘pinstriped abuse’,
which impacts on the lonely,wealthy and
confused clients of unscrupulous lawyers.
For those pining to get into the media,
Jill Manthorpe and colleagues at King’s
College and the National Centre for Social
Research recall the ways in which research
about the abuse and neglect of older people
was made into ‘copy’ by calling for ‘new rights’
and asserting that elder abuse, ‘affects
thousands… four per cent of older people…
350,000 pensioners.’ For sound reasons,
researchers and adult protection co-ordinators
are more hesitant than journalists to propose
specificnumbers, not least because of our
conservative definitions and our experiential
conviction that we are always engaging with
the proverbial tip of the iceberg. While the
promise of a review of No Secrets (DoH, 2000)
was a welcome governmental response to their
research, this is hardly a splash of a headline.
Manthorpe and colleagues have made a
substantial contribution to documenting the
natureof abuse and neglect experienced by
people aged 66 and over living in private
households and sheltered accommodation.
During the course of the study, their
consultation with 18 adult protection
co-ordinators confirmed that these
professionals perceived abuse and neglect
as a continuum ranging from minutely
nuanced interactions to gross violations of
their human rights, which wereprincipally
fashioned by greed, with drug and alcohol
abuse implicated. Perhaps we shouldn’t
mention to such relatives that the cost of
£500 to assume a personal welfare power
of attorney and a financial affairs power of
attorney is a very modest down payment for
the prospect of inheriting property without
the hassle of explaining to a nosy adult
protection co-ordinator/representative of
the public protection unit:
‘Mummy/my dearest friend/favourite
aunt/loving neighbour always wanted
me to maximise my consumption of
goods/pleasures in foreign travel unfettered
by considerations of integrity or moral
courage. I just wish she could tell you
herself. She was always such a giving soul.
This ring is my most treasured possession.
It was her engagement ring. Since its
valuation, I wear it for safe-keeping…’
The emotionally laden accounts of the
adult protection co-ordinators and the
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