What is discriminatory abuse

Discriminatory abuse

This is when someone treats you unfairly because they think you are different from them. This can be because of your:

age
sex (including gender reassignment)
religion or belief
disability / ability
sexual orientation
race

This includes abuse that is racist, sexist, homophobic, based on age or disability, or any forms of harassment.

Discriminatory abuse can happen anywhere or at any time. For example, even if you are in hospital and the person abusing you is unwell, it is still not acceptable and should
be dealt with.

What to do if you are being subjected to discriminatory abuse

If you think that you may have suffered discriminatory abuse or any other form of abuse by another person, you should immediately tell your care coordinator, named nurse, or any other professional working with you who you trust. Their contact details should be on your care plan.

What happens after you tell us what has happened?

We will always take what you report seriously.

We will listen to you and respect your wishes.

We will give you immediate help and support to help you to keep safe and to ensure the abuse stops.

We will work with you and anyone else who can help you. This may include the police and other services.

Any information you give will be used sensitively, and will be shared only on a confidential basis with other agencies that might need to help. This may need to be shared without your consent if we are very worried about your or someone else’s safety.

We will try and act in your best interests
if we need to. If you find it difficult to understand what is happening we will ask you if you want an advocate, or the support of a carer, relative or friend.

We will keep you informed of what is happening.

We will ask if, and how, you wish to take
part in any investigation or in planning to safeguard you from abuse or neglect in
the future.

What happens next?

We will make a quick decision – are you in immediate danger? If you are, we will take action straight away to safeguard you, with your agreement if you are able to provide this.

If we do not think you are in immediate danger, we will talk to other professionals to decide what to do.

A meeting may be arranged to look at what has happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. You will be invited to attend and to contribute to any plan that is put in place to reduce the possibility of further abuse.

How long will the process take?

Some safeguarding issues can be dealt with quite quickly, but others can be complex and take longer to sort out. You will be kept up to date on what is happening.

What happens afterwards?

Once any investigation or safeguarding plan is completed, we will ask if you feel safer and if you feel your views and wishes were listened to and taken seriously.

We hope that you will tell us what your experience was, so we can improve how we work with people to keep them safe in the future.

What to do if you are unhappy with
the way we have tried to help keep you safe?

If you think something is going wrong with the way we are trying to help you, let us know as soon as possible, so we can try and put it right immediately – don’t keep silent or wait until the end of the investigation to tell us that you are not happy.
Discuss your concerns with the people directly involved and see if they can resolve the issue.
You can contact PALS who can help resolve problems before the matter becomes a complaint.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a formal complaint that will be fully investigated.