Thursday, October 28 2021.
Safeguarding Ireland has today called for progress on strengthened adult safeguarding measures – including primary legislation and planning for a National Safeguarding Authority.
The call comes following today’s launch of the HSE National Safeguarding Office (NSO) Annual Report 2020, which reported 10,216 cases of alleged adult abuse.
Safeguarding Ireland Chairperson Patricia Rickard-Clarke welcomed the NSO report as an important part of adult safeguarding.
The Report found that the most frequent type of abuse alleged was psychological followed by physical, which carried through across all age groups. Adults under 65 had the highest proportion of psychological and physical abuse alleged. Financial abuse and neglect were alleged to a greater extent in adults over 80 years.
Ms Rickard-Clarke said: “Safeguarding Ireland welcomes the work of the nine HSE Safeguarding and Protection Teams across the country. However, RED C research commissioned by Safeguarding Ireland in 2020 found that 12% of all adults had experienced adult abuse in the previous six months and one third of adults reported ever experiencing abuse. This data suggests that the actual level of abuse in the country is much higher than what is reported annually to the HSE Teams.
“We therefore need to greatly speed up the enactment of primary adult safeguarding legislation, to begin planning for a National Safeguarding Authority, and to see the effective roll-out of the long-awaited Assisted Decision-Making capacity Act (2015) from June 1, 2022.
“Safeguarding Ireland welcomes the fact that the HSE has also highlighted the need for progress on safeguarding legislation in the report commentary.”
The FULL REPORT can be read here.
More information at www.safeguardingireland.org.
Further Information
Ronan Cavanagh, Cavanagh Communications: (086) 317 9731.
Safeguarding Ireland
Safeguarding Ireland promotes safeguarding of adults to protect them from all forms of abuse by persons, organisations and institutions and to deliver a national plan for promoting their welfare.
