To be able to identify a concern, it’s important to know what safeguarding actually is. It goes beyond the protection of children and adults at risk, but instead encompasses the overall wellbeing of all people. This includes keeping everyone safe from harm, abuse, maltreatment or neglect. As such, safeguarding isn’t just the wellbeing of our clients, the people we care for and those at risk, but for everyone. We’ve been working alongside independent Safeguarding Consultant and Author Joanna Nicolas to review our safeguarding policies and procedures. Here, we round up some of the safeguarding concerns that might arise when providing care in the home.
The Family Dynamic: Is Something Not Quite Right?
“Having worked with care professionals across the healthcare sector, an alarm bell always goes off when an experienced nurse or carer tells me that they’ve never had a safeguarding concern about any client they have worked with,” Joanna reveals. Highlighting the fact that safeguarding concerns are much more common than we think, Joanna emphasises the importance of being alert, vigilant and proactive when it comes to addressing and resolving issues.
For example, if a care team enters a private home and notices that the family uses bad language around the children – it might seem difficult to ascertain if this is a safeguarding concern in itself. Even if this seems like normal behaviour for the family in question, it’s important to remember that swearing and other aggressive language is unlikely to promote the emotional and mental wellbeing of the children in that home. “Of course it’s never as simple as that and whether this is in fact a safeguarding concern depends on many factors,” says Joanna. What’s important is to recognise what might be normal activity in one family environment might actually be a concern. “It is always better to err on the side of caution and do something and get it wrong, than do nothing and discover something has happened to the child or adult you felt might have been at risk,” Joanna explains.
Ultimately, if a member of the team has any reason to believe the child’s, adult’s or even their own safety is being compromised, they should act on this and discuss their concerns in line with Superior Healthcare’s safeguarding policy, rather than dismiss it. We encourage our teams to be vigilant and come forward if they have any safeguarding concerns for someone’s welfare or their own.
Professional Boundaries: Where do You Draw the Line?
It’s not uncommon for the professional boundaries to become blurred when working in a personal capacity with a family at home. Nurses and carers providing one-to-one care in a home environment often develop a strong bond and friendship with the family. The pandemic has intensified this with a family’s only contact with others being limited to the care team working in the home. This is why it’s more important than ever to maintain professional boundaries, whilst remaining empathetic and kind. Joanna provided an example that outlines a situation where this balance became unequal.
A single parent of a young daughter with life-limiting disabilities was receiving support from carers in the family home. The mother made a connection with one of the carers, as she too was a single mother of a child with complex health needs. This carer related to the mother in question, as she understood the feelings of loneliness, the sleep deprivation and how overwhelming the responsibility could be, so they became close and the carer would often go out of her way to help the mother. Over time, and as a result of the carer becoming too personally involved, the mother became increasingly dependent on the carer.
In an instance such as this, we expect our team members to recognise when boundaries might be beginning to blur. The carer should talk it through with their coordinator or Nurse Manager and resolve it together. Ultimately, the professional line had been crossed much earlier on, and in this situation became a safeguarding concern before the mother started being more dependent on the carer. “In summary, safeguard those you work with and safeguard yourself. That is the very best that you can do,” Joanna concludes.
To learn more about safeguarding and what to look out for, please reach out to Superior Healthcare’s Safeguarding Lead Adele Blythe by sending an email to adeleblythe@superiorhealthcare.co.uk.
