The other day I was talking to one of my ex work colleges who told me about an incident with one of her clients and asked me my thoughts; it highlighted how exposed front end providers of care can be and how procedures and guidelines are waited towards the service user.

But also how interpretation of events can differ and what one person will flag up as of being of some concern another person will dismiss as being nothing of importance.

But also highlights personal space, and the need to have a clear distinction and that all parties understand this.

In my mind her personal space was invaded in a way that should never be, a male service provider putting his hand up her top. Interesting when she mentioned it to his care manager the response was quite surprising “ow he’s done that to me I thought he was just being overly effectuate”???

I was a little taken aback by this response, hum strange!

Ok he has some learning difficulties and so in some ways acts like a child, but in other ways has shown some adult feelings. But the reinforcement of personal space is needed by all who have contact with any service user.

But I am also reminded that in some cases there are some notable exemptions, a personal space policy when it comes to very small children can be very detrimental especially in times of distress having fallen or hurt themselves for instance the child may need a hug and reassurance that all is going to be well. Working for years with the under five’s the baby’s also need that close contact and so a personal space policy does not work and again can have a huge detrimental affect on the child’s development.

There are also some groups especially those with developmental shortcomings who are seen as at risk because on the development scale they remain as if under five; so need to be treated in such a manner.

But the perception of what people see can cause some problems, a hug of a child can lead to a health care professional being reported and suspended whilst investigations are being carried out. This has a huge impact on other colleges and psychological effects on the person being investigated with in the extreme individuals taking there own life but later being found to have done no wrong.

The system in many ways is set up to protect those accessing the service and we see many cases were those providing the service have abused there position which is never a good thing; myself and other male colleges working in the care sector are acutely aware that in many ways we are more under scrutiny than our female colleges. But recent cases of nursery nurses abusing children in there care and posting them on the internet has highlighted that there are a very small percentage of female colleges that also abuse.

Yes we need an open system were those who are or feel they are being abused can make a complaint without fear of any comeback; that it will be fully investigated and if need by actions taken appropriate to the abuse that’s taken place.

But we see that although there has been a highlight of how many nursing staff are attacked (1 in 4) that there is a no tolerance policy; but for certain groups there continues to be a culture of making excuses and pressure put on the health care professional not to pursue any legal action making it appear that by doing so they are being unprofessional and causing problems for a vulnerable member of society. It is interesting to note that although the number of care staff reporting abuse that they beam unacceptable (1 in 4) only 2% goes to court.

My friend and ex-work college was told that she should expect these sort of things and although he was given a three day suspension from the day services this was not for putting his hand up her top; no it was for the subsequent punch because she knocked his hands away. Hum? Is it me or is there something not quite right her?

But abuse and reports of abuse are not always as black and white or as easy to investigate as people think, I remember one case that was highlighted on one of my child protection courses of an elderly man giving children a piggy back and on occasions depending on the child’s size put on his shoulders. He was well known in the community and no one thought anything unusual by his actions in fact in many ways he made a good baby sitter if you needed to do a quick chore; any way one day a girl said he had touched her inside her knickers and she didn’t like it! The adult response? Ow his hand must have slipped you are a little mistaken; her words were some what lost but one person started to wonder and watched him. It took some time before enough evidence and another little girl reporting the same thing that the pieces of the jigsaw came together, his piggy back rides were a cover sadly.

And this has been my own experience working on cases were there’s been suspected abuse, from initial concerns it can be some time before what many see as direct action is taken place; we see that at times catastrophic results have happened because the file has been open but at the time not enough evidence is there.
But for me for those working in health care in many ways are more vulnerable than those accessing the service; and for those investigating acts of abuse are vulnerable by nature of the fact that of they act on one complaint without a full investigation they are criticized by the press, but if any thing happens during the investigation process again they are criticized by the press.

And we see this happens also in ISKCON that those who are charged with making sure policies are in put in place and followed are criticized; more so those who investigate allegations of a abuse are also criticized. Rather than given some support for doing a very difficult job.