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Working with Adult Abuse: a training manual for people working with vulnerable adults

Author:	Jacki Pritchard
Published By:	Jessica Kingsley Publishers (London)
Pages:	413
Price:	£50
ISBN:	978 1 84310 509

Reviewed by Dorothy Aristides.

The writer, Jacki Pritchard, has been a trainer for the past seventeen years and has written a series of books on all forms of adult and elder abuse, how to recognize it, and how to become a trainer in this field. Alongside her writing she is also a worker, maintaining up to the minute contact with victims as she feels strongly that “you have to know what it is like to practise in the real world,” if your writing is to be in any way relevant to workers on the front line.

Each chapter in this A3-sized training manual can stand alone as a one off awareness-raising and training session for ministers and church leaders to use, and the whole is a valuable reference book when a situation arises that needs action. Early on, the writer lists the forms of abuse that ministers and volunteers need be aware of. These are:

Physical

Sexual

Emotional/Psychological

Financial/Material

Neglect/Acts of Omission

Discriminatory

The writer also draws attention to the consideration of stress to carers and possible consequences, and to ‘one off’ incidents that can go unnoticed and can sometimes be excused by victims.

Abuse of the elderly is defined in the Manual as anyone over the age of 65: “Recent campaigns supported by Action on Elder Abuse and Help the Aged have stated that half a million older people are abused in the UK”. Older people, the writer maintains, are the largest group of victims of adult abuse. 

Moving further into the book, having recognized what constitutes abuse and receiving training in recognizing symptoms, we then look at what our response should be to a disclosure by a victim. This is where listening skills come to the fore in ministers and pastoral care workers who may be the people the victim knows and trusts. This is a detailed chapter as the author describes body language, use of words, appropriate ways to pose questions, tone of voice, pacing the conversation, and at the same time, recording what is being disclosed, with the permission of the victim. 

The thoroughness of her writing, shown in the training material, provides scope for users of the manual to take sections that are relevant to them, or part of each chapter, as there is an abundance of material available, easy to use and understand. 

A final word about the consequences of reporting a disclosure - this is helpful to ministers because this reporting to a social worker responsible for vulnerable people in the community sets a whole process in motion which includes examining evidence, calling in other professionals, and eventually a case conference. The book prepares you for this “world of professional language and behaviour in the training material which covers every angle of the process.