I Care Campaign
Imagine living alone and being too frail or ill to get out and about. Imagine now that you do not have any family around you to lend a hand - who would you turn to if you were in trouble? Sadly, this is a reality for many people living across the borough.
The 'I Care' campaign is funded by North East London Foundation Trust, Community Health Services Barking and Dagenham, NHS Barking and Dagenham and Barking & Dagenham Council. It aims to encourage residents to get back into the habit of looking out for vulnerable adults in their neighbourhoods - be it the elderly, those with mental health issues, or those with disabilities.
While sometimes a friendly hello or a trip to the shops for some groceries will be all they need sometimes the risks they face might be more serious and they will need the support of professionals.
So where do you come in? While local public, private, voluntary and community sector organisations work in partnership to prevent abuse and neglect its hidden nature means that we don't tend to find out about it until it's got very serious.
The aim of this campaign is to encourage local people to alert us if they think a vulnerable adult is being mistreated or abused so that we can prevent abuse before it has a chance to escalate.
While we will never really know how much abuse is going on, it is estimated that around 1 in 40* of the older population living in the UK have been mistreated in the past year. Furthermore adults with physical disabilities, learning disabilities or those with mental health problems are often at even higher risk.
Following on from the success of the first phase of the 'I Care' campaign in the summer where we distributed information alongside packs of tissues and cakes to residents to raise awareness of the issue, October will mark the second phase of the campaign. This will be followed by a third phase over the Christmas and New Year period.
Contacts
If you suspect that a vulnerable adult is being abused or neglected, please contact the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham's Safeguarding Adults Team on 020 8724 8859 (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday). Out of hours, contact 020 8594 8356. In an emergency always dial 999.
Stats
Those with learning disabilities have an higher chance of being abused** (thought to be because of issues like difficulties in communicating; lack of sexual knowledge and assertiveness***).
Like other vulnerable groups, people living with mental health problems in the community experience similarly high rates of victimisation.
A study by the mental health charity Mind**** estimates that almost 3 quarters of those suffering from conditions have been victimized in the community at least once in the past 2 years, with 2 in 5 experiencing abuse and a staggering 1 in 10 being sexually assaulted.
Key
* = Kings College London: Madeleine O'Keeffe, Amy Hills, Melanie Doyle, Claudine McCreadie, Shaun Scholes, Rebecca Constantine, Anthea Tinker, Jill Manthorpe, Simon Biggs and Bob Erens, 2007
** = Brown and Craft, 1992
*** = Sinason, 1993 a, b
**** = Mind 2007