A Report on the case study of Mr. C. Lazo

This report discusses the case study of Mr. C. Lazo, a vulnerable adult who experienced neglect and poor practice in a care setting. It explores the type of abuse he faced, the legislation act of care, and the importance of safeguarding for the well-being and empowerment of individuals. The report highlights the need for proper care and support for vulnerable adults and the role of the Care Act in promoting their rights and protection.

“A Report on the case study of Mr. C. Lazo”
Student Name:
Student Number:
1

Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................3
Type of Abuse............................................................................................................................................3
The legislation care act..............................................................................................................................4
Safeguarding..............................................................................................................................................5
Safeguarding is provided for the Well-being and Empowerment of the individual.........................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................................9
2

Introduction
The term “vulnerable adult” can be given to an individual or a person who is above eighteen
years of age and who is in need or may be in future will need the care services for reasons like
mental disability, any kind of impairment, age factor, and who is not capable of taking care of
himself or herself or in cable of protecting themselves in the case of any harm caused to them
(Dunn, Clare and Holland, 2008). Also this term was used in No Secrets for describing those
adult individuals who were in a need to be safeguarded. But in 2011 it was suggested by the Law
commission that the usage of this label “vulnerability” itself is very haunting and in appropriate
to be used, it should no longer be used as it also sounds very demeaning, stigmatizing and
disempowering. The Care Act uses this term as “adult with care and support needs” or simply it
uses the term “adult at risk” (Johnson and Boland, 2018). The following case study is also about
one such individual who is a vulnerable adult. Mr C. Lazo has intricate consideration and bolster
needs and was being upheld by various organizations. He encountered a progression of
arrangement moves which affected his passionate prosperity bringing about a decay of conduct.
He was additionally getting physically week due to not having legitimate nourishment. Concerns
were communicated by his consideration group that there might be a fundamental physical
reason for him not having proper food and getting in shape. He was admitted to a local intense
medical clinic trust for perceptions and indicative tests. Amid his stay in medical clinic, he didn't
get the fundamental tests to discount a physical wellbeing condition as a main driver of his
physical appearance. He was released from clinic 7 weeks after the fact as it was felt that his
condition was because of conduct and not physical causes. He was released to a nursing home
for end of life care.
Type of Abuse
The first and foremost thing to understand and analyze is the type of abuse, an adult has been a
victim of. There are various categories of abuses like sexual abuse, mental abuse, emotional
abuse, psychological abuse etc (Yon et al., 2018). All these kind of abuse are not found in the
case of Mr. Lazo. As there were no signs of physical violation on his body and neither any kind
3

of sexual abuse was reported by his health care team. However what was evident from his
condition was that he was not at all satisfied with the type of care he was getting at the time he
needed it the most. This has landed him into a condition in which he is not at all responding to
any of the good or bad things happening to him. Mr. Lazo has been admitted in this healthcare
facility so that he could get necessary treatment and care which could help him getting better
physically as well as mentally. He has stopped eating and drinking properly, which is a concern
on which major action was to be taken. But there was no such care taking attitude seen in the
setting. Neither were they concerned about conducting necessary tests that could be used to
understand and analyze Mr. Lazos’s health condition in a much better and informed way. They
kept him for seven long weeks and did not conduct a single medical checkup. He is losing his
weight constantly, even this condition has not bothered them to check what the root cause behind
it is. He had been to various other health care facilities too before he got admitted here, and
there also he suffered from lack of attention which has deteriorated his behavior too. It can be
affirmed by taking all this conditions into consideration that Mr. Lazo’s case is of an
Organizational abuse.
Present case study enables us to think about subjects around organizational abuse, that includes
disregard and poor practice inside an establishment or explicit consideration setting, and activity
which should be taken in these occurrences, as stated by the Care Act statutory guidance.
The legislation act of care
The Care Act 2014 comes with a set of some responsibilities regarding the incorporation of
consideration and backing among wellbeing and local authorities. The National Health Service
(NHS), England & Clinical Commissioning Groups are working in association with nearby and
neighboring social care administrations. These local Authorities (LA) have legal compulsion
regarding safeguarding as well as with the partnership of health care providers, they are ought to
promote health and ell being in the LA’s (England.nhs.uk, 2019).The Care Act 2014 aims at
providing safeguarding to the adults of England and Wales. A new form of this law came in
April 2015 which displaced the earlier reports that looked for the protection of vulnerable adults
from abuse. This act itself united a wide scope of social consideration concerns and exercises,
which included personalization, social consideration evaluation, safeguarding & after care of
4

Mental Health Act 117 in a solitary. The main goal of this law was the formation of a legal
framework in which all the crucial organizations and those individuals who have the
responsibilities of the adults could decide upon working together and discuss their directions and
approach towards keeping the adults free from risks (GOV.UK, 2019).
In the present situation of Mr. Lazo the safeguarding investigations will require to include his
April 2015. The arrangement are needed to be aware of the fact, as stated by Care Act guidance,
where an objection or charge has been made against an individual from staff, they 'ought to be
made aware of their rights under business enactment and any inward disciplinary systems (Social
Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), 2019). Other health care providing hospitals have been
approached so that he could get minimum necessary treatment which he needs at the moment.
His family has been contacted to set up a meeting so that the condition of Mr. Lazo can be stated
and discussed as to how and why Mr. Lazo has started taking things like the way they are offered
without even thinking once that the things which have been offered to him are really good or not.
Also his family should be answerable about his placements moves for this much number of times
and not raising voice when Mr. Lazo was not getting what he needed. Agencies responsible for
the adult care have been contacted and informed about him. The group of hospitals where Mr.
Lazo was admitted earlier have also been summoned and will have to present proper evidences
and statement in their support as to why they failed to provide proper care to Mr. Lazo. Although
according to the Section 44 of the Mental Capacity Act it is a criminal offence to wilfully neglect
or mistreat an adult who lacks capacity, but since Mr. Lazo is in a capacity to take decision but
he is just not willing to, so police involvement would not be required in the safeguarding process.
The LA’s are not authorized to give directions to the health care facility where Mr. Lazo has
been admitted on how to take an action about the negligence but the matter should be reported to
the CQC and should be continuously monitored. Since it a care setting so the LA must inform all
the other authorities for further required action (Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE),
2019).
Safeguarding
Safeguarding adult suggests the idea to protect a person’s right to live a safe and happy life that
is free from any kind of abuse or neglect (Gibson et al., 2016). In order to identify the situation
5

as to when and how the safe guarding should be provided to the adult who is suffering from any
kind of abuse one must be clear about whether the person who is in need is in a capacity to
provide consent for his safe guarding or not. In order to understand this aspect it becomes
mandatory to know about the Mental Capacity Act 2005 first.
The staff and the professionals working at various agencies should be aware of guidelines of the
Mental Capacity Act 2005. They should be able to make proper judgment by utilizing their
professional skills and by balancing other contradicting views. They can ask for possible help
from their heads or the employers if they want to help or manage the adult decision making
process on their own (Legislation.gov.uk, 2019).
 This act comes into play if there are doubts that weather or not the person would be able
to take his or her own decision about their health and safety efficiently.
 The code of practice of this act states that, the person who is involved in the assessment
of the capacity of an individual to make a decision should have a direct concern to the
individual at the time of decision making (GOV.UK, 2019).
 The worker should go for the two stage functional test capacity in order to check if the
individual is in a capacity to take his or own decisions or not before undergoing any
process of decision making.
 The two stage functional test capacity requires you to answer two questions in order to
decide about the capacity of an individual to take his decisions.
 Stage one requires you to answer if there is a presence of any kind of disturbance or there
is any impairment with the functioning of the brain. Whereas the second stage questions
about whether or not the magnitude of the impairment or the disturbance is high enough
to make an individual incapable of taking his or her own decision.
According to this act an individual is incapable of taking his or her decision if he or she is not
able to perform one or more of the following things.
1. Should be able to understand the information provided to him.
2. Should be able to retain that information for that long that he is able to take a decision on
the basis of it.
3. Should be able to analyze the available information for making decision.
6

4. Should be able to convey their decision by talking, or by any hand gesture or using sign
language or simply by making some muscle movement or even by blinking their eyes.
After the consideration of all the points it was decided that Mr. Lazo is in a capacity to decide
and to participate in a step to make better arrangements for his treatment and care but he will not
do it on his own as he has been not in a condition from a longtime when he was admitted earlier
in different health care facility. He would just be fine with everything what is happening to him.
Good or bad he will accept it all and let the things move as they are moving. If he wanted to do
anything for himself he would have done it in the earlier settings. He would not have been
changing his places continuously and would have raised his voice when his care was being
neglected by the organization. In order to make him understand and sign the consent a one to one
meeting was arranged and he was told all about the safe guarding procedures and its benefits. He
was assured of getting out from this condition and also the assurance of better support and health
care facilities was provided.
Safeguarding is provided for the Well-being and Empowerment of the
individual
Similarly as with all parts of the Care Act, the idea of prosperity supports the practice of
safeguarding, with 'assurance from maltreatment and disregard' referred to as one of the key
components of advancing individual prosperity (GOV.UK, 2019). There have been six
fundamental principles on safeguarding outlined by the Care Act Guidance. Empowerment is
one of the six safeguarding principles according to which people are encouraged & supported to
take their own decisions and informed consent. At the time when Mr. Lazo was bought here and
I started observing him, he could never believe to have signed the consent form for safeguarding.
But now that he has signed the form, the steps would be taken in the direction of making him
more empowered. He will be brought back on his own two feet and his capacity of deciding what
is good and what is bad for him will be restored. He will no longer show this kind of ignorant
behavior towards himself. He will be given all the care and need that he requires to get fully
cured and become empowered again.
7

Also this safe guarding procedure would lead to an overall betterment and wellbeing of the
patient. He would then be able to be happy and jolly, the bitterness from his behavior would be
gone. He would be a changed person with a new hope, enthusiasm and a new reason to be glad
about each day that the life is showing him.
Conclusion
The presentation of the Care Act 2014 has had various ramifications for care givers and patients
who require any kind of support for the safeguarding practices. A constructive advancements
concerning singular strengthening is that the Act puts a more noteworthy accentuation on
individual self-assurance and wanted results. Patients presently have an increasingly powerful
structure securing their rights to settle on choices related to their lives, with new support
necessities guaranteeing that their voices do not go unheard (Daly, Merchant and Jogerst, 2011).
Aversion standards have expelled a portion of the past edges which would have averted those in
the beginning times of maltreatment or disregard from being neglected, and expect
administrations to be increasingly proactive in forestalling the heightening of abuse.
There are at present no countrywide guidelines in England detailing the encounters of individuals
who have been included with grown-up shielding administrations following worries that they
might be in danger of maltreatment or disregard (Ec.europa.eu, 2019). The Health and Social
Care Information Center (HSCIC) expected to build up another grown-up protecting result
measure (overview) for neighborhood specialists (LAs) that could be added to the Adult Social
Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF). The ASCOF is a national accumulation of social
consideration results execution markers gathered from the point of view of individuals accepting
halfway or absolute subsidizing from a LA for consideration administrations (Norrie et al.,
2016).
At last the goal to provide wellbeing and empowerment to the individual by raising safeguarding
enquiries should be fulfilled. However recovery isn't tied in with "showing signs of
improvement" or stopping to require support, but it is more about "recouping a real existence",
the privilege to take an interest in all aspects of urban and monetary life as an equivalent native
(Allen, 2014). This requires a system predicated on a human rights and a social model of
prohibition. It is society that cripples individuals, it is frames of mind, activities, presumptions –
8

social, social and physical structures which impair by raising hindrances and forcing limitations
and alternatives. (Slade et al., 2014). Mr. Lazo should feel full of life and energy. He should be
able to exercise all his rights of being provided with the type of care and support whenever he
needs them. There should be a good care taken by his family so that he does not needs a third
person to raise a safeguard enquiry for him in future. The agencies involved in the procedure
should also give their full support and look forward to putting an end to the organizational abuse.
References
Allen, C. (2014). Working in Mental Health. Practice and Policy in a Changing Environment
Phillips Peter Sandford Tom Claire Johnston Working in Mental Health. Practice and Policy
in a Changing Environment196pp £24.99 Routledge 9780415691109 0415691109. Mental
Health Practice, 17(10), pp.8-8.
Daly, J., Merchant, M. and Jogerst, G. (2011). Elder Abuse Research: A Systematic
Review. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 23(4), pp.348-365.
Dunn, M., Clare, I. and Holland, A. (2008). To empower or to protect? Constructing the
‘vulnerable adult’ in English law and public policy. Legal Studies, 28(2), pp.234-253.
Ec.europa.eu. (2019). [online] Available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_publication/eb_health_en.pdf [Accessed 16 May 2019].
England.nhs.uk. (2019). [online] Available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/adult-pocket-guide.pdf [Accessed
15 May 2019].
Gibson, J., Nicol, B., Ronayne, E. and Grant, M. (2016). Safeguarding adults in primary care:
making a safeguarding adults referral. British Journal of General Practice, 66(647),
pp.e454-e456.
GOV.UK. (2019). Care Act factsheets. [online] Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-2014-part-1-factsheets/care-act-
factsheets [Accessed 15 May 2019].
9

GOV.UK. (2019). Care and support statutory guidance. [online] Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-statutory-guidance/care-and-support-
statutory-guidance [Accessed 16 May 2019].
GOV.UK. (2019). Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice. [online] Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-capacity-act-code-of-practice
[Accessed 16 May 2019].
Johnson, K. and Boland, B. (2018). Adult safeguarding under the Care Act 2014. BJPsych
Bulletin, 43(1), pp.38-42.
Legislation.gov.uk. (2019). Mental Capacity Act 2005. [online] Available at:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/9/section/2 [Accessed 16 May 2019].
Norrie, C., Manthorpe, J., Cartwright, C. and Rayat, P. (2016). The feasibility of introducing an
adult safeguarding measure for inclusion in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework
(ASCOF): findings from a pilot study. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1).
Slade, M., Amering, M., Farkas, M., Hamilton, B., O'Hagan, M., Panther, G., Perkins, R.,
Shepherd, G., Tse, S. and Whitley, R. (2014). Uses and abuses of recovery: implementing
recovery-oriented practices in mental health systems. World Psychiatry, 13(1), pp.12-20.
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). (2019). Adult safeguarding practice questions.
[online] Available at: https://www.scie.org.uk/safeguarding/adults/practice/questions
[Accessed 16 May 2019].
Yon, Y., Ramiro-Gonzalez, M., Mikton, C., Huber, M. and Sethi, D. (2018). The prevalence of
elder abuse in institutional settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European
Journal of Public Health, 29(1), pp.58-67.
10