How We Treat the Sick: Neglect and Abuse in Our Health Services

Bridget Penhale (Reader in Mental Health of Older People, UEA, Norwich)

The Journal of Adult Protection

ISSN: 1466-8203

Article publication date: 15 June 2012

62

Citation

Penhale, B. (2012), "How We Treat the Sick: Neglect and Abuse in Our Health Services", The Journal of Adult Protection, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 151-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/jap.2012.14.3.151.1

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


This volume is a recent addition to a number of books from this publisher that consider issues relating to older people and also a series that considers violence, abuse and neglect. It is very useful to have a volume that focuses specifically on the treatment of people within healthcare and one that is designed to assist practitioners and students in developing their knowledge and understanding in this area. This is of particular relevance given the previous apparent failure of health services and healthcare professionals to fully engage with issues relating to adult safeguarding. While the title of the book refers to all healthcare users, it predominantly focuses on older adults as they are the principal users of health services.

The author has previously written widely about legal issues in social care and certainly does not avoid possible discomfort in this book in his presentation of a catalogue of systemic, and systematic mistreatment of people within health services across England. The book is fairly weighty and consists of 26 chapters covering such issues as dignity in care and the provision (and lack) of basic care such as assisting with nutrition, hydration and helping people to get to the toilet. As a lawyer, he also considers a number of the legal implications of what he describes as “systemic neglect and abuse in healthcare”. Although the book is intended to be about all individuals, the main focus, as already stated, is older people.

In his analysis of the causes of such mis‐treatment, the author does not shy away from identifying the marketisation of healthcare and the external imposition, by government, of performance targets, together with an over‐emphasis on systems of financial management as key factors. The predominance in recent years of these issues has been to the apparent diminution of care provision and the virtual disappearance of compassionate care within healthcare organisations. However, for this reader, the book lacked a full examination of discriminatory practices and ageism as key factors in the situations that are presented throughout the volume and rather more of this focus would have helped to support the arguments that Mandelstam so ably makes.

The book raises a number of specific questions for practitioners in health and social care, which we/they might rather not face. To what extent should we/they tackle poor standards of care and at what point do poor standards really become unacceptable? When should we/they confront colleagues (from the same or different professional backgrounds) who speak disrespectfully to and about the individuals for whom they care? What is the real, or full cost of (our) silence and failure to voice concerns about such issues?

The structure of the book and chapter layout means that the text is accessible and easy‐to‐read, although as indicated, some of the material is rather harrowing at times. The use of case examples is well done and the framework that is used in the book is helpful. Students and practitioners reading the book should appreciate and learn from the material provided and gain a deeper understanding of the range of issues involved. This is a useful book that will be of interest to the range of individuals and organisations working in the area of adult services, including but not exclusively, adult safeguarding.

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