![]() Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 gives us a right to respect for private and family life. ![]() The Care Act (2014) statutory guidance – self-neglect is included as a category under adult safeguarding.Lack of resources can prevent appropriate service responses.Application of the Mental Capacity Act can be very complex in relation to self-neglect.Limited legal literacy – professionals may not have a good understanding of the law that can be utilised in relation to self-neglect.Information sharing is sometimes problematic, particularly when the person refuses help.Where the Safeguarding Adults Board isn’t appropriate there may be no alternative decision-making forum.Individuals don’t always have care and support needs – so safeguarding responses may not be appropriate.Work patterns and resources don’t support long-term, relationship-based work.There is often a lack of clarity about who should take responsibility for supporting people who self-neglect.There can be pressure on professionals to take action, but often very little they can do.The risks associated with self-neglect can be high and the options for intervention are limited.People who self-neglect may refuse support or fail to acknowledge the problem.Working with people who self-neglect can be alarming and very challenging.It is rare that a total transformation will take place and positive change should be seen as a long-term, incremental process. In most cases, the intervention should seek to minimise the risk while respecting the individual’s choices. Safeguarding duties will apply where the adult has care and support needs (many people who self-neglect do not), and they are at risk of self-neglect and they are unable to protect themselves because of their care and support needs. However, the inclusion of self-neglect in statutory guidance does not mean that everyone who self-neglects needs to be safeguarded. In some cases, where the adult has care and support needs, safeguarding responses may be appropriate. The inclusion of self-neglect in the Care Act statutory guidance with regard to safeguarding focused attention on the issue and led local authorities to develop new approaches to working with people. It is therefore vital that all efforts to engage with and support an individual are clearly recorded. Sometimes, even when all agencies have done everything in their power to support an individual, they may die or suffer significant harm as a result of their own action or inaction. But there are limitations to what others can do if the adult has mental capacity to make their own decisions about how they live. Family or neighbours can sometimes be critical of professionals because they don’t do anything to improve the situation of the individual. People who neglect themselves often decline help from others in many cases they do not feel that they need it. Hoarding can sometimes relate to obsessive compulsive disorder but hoarding and self-neglect do not always appear together and one does not necessarily cause the other. Hoarding is now widely considered as a mental health disorder and appears in the US ‘Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders’ (5th Edition). There is often an assumption that self-neglecting behaviours indicate a mental health problem but there is no direct correlation. People with mental health problems may display self-neglecting behaviours. Sometimes self-neglect is related to deteriorating health and ability in older age and the term ‘Diogenes syndrome’ may be used to describe this. reduced motivation as a side effect of medication.physical illness which has an effect on abilities, energy levels, attention span, organisational skills or motivation.obsessive compulsive disorder or hoarding disorder.a person’s brain injury, dementia or other mental disorder.It is not always possible to establish a root cause for self-neglecting behaviours. ![]()
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