Self-neglect is a serious and complex problem requiring clinical, social and ethical decisions in its management and treatment. This guidance is required for understanding self-neglect and developing a consistent and common practice across all agencies that meet adults who are displaying self-neglecting behaviours whether they have mental capacity or not and who have care and support needs but who do not want help to change.
Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership is committed to collaborative multi-agency partnership working to assist in increasing awareness of self-neglect and determine the most favourable approach for achieving engagement with the adult at risk in conjunction with a care and support plan to enable responses to be proportionate, appropriate and timely.
The Adult Protection Co-ordinator can offer advice and support around complex multi-agency work with adults at risk who choose to self-neglect. A failure to engage may have a profoundly detrimental effect on an adult’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. It can also impact on the adult’s family and local community.
Supporting operational staff and their managers to identify and respond to self-neglect is a key priority for multi-agency partners. While we are becoming increasingly better equipped to identify self-neglect, we are often challenged in how to respond to it effectively.
At a workshop on 19th September 2023, practitioners involved with self neglect and hoarding cases identified a range of challenges / barriers, including non-engagement / impact of trauma, lack of practitioner ‘expertise’ and capacity, and lack of a common approach. A summary of the findings of the workshop can be found at Appendix 1 to this Guidance.
The guidance aims to support good practice in self-neglect and non-engagement.