For Men To Talk’s Safeguarding Policy
Safeguarding means protecting people’s health, wellbeing and human rights. It also means protecting people from harm by providing a safe and inclusive environment.
As a Community Interest Company, and focusing in specific on mens mental health, ’For Men To Talk’ has that safeguarding responsibility too. We need to have a safeguarding policy in place.
There are significant differences between safeguarding adults and young people, but as our group meetings are strictly for over 18 year olds only, we will only need to focus on adults.
However, for information only, the differences include:
- Young people and adults are likely to face different issues.
- Procedures for reporting abuse and handling cases are not the same for young people and adults.
- There is different legislation and policy relating to young people and adults.
In England, an adult at risk is any person aged 18 years or over who:
- has care and support needs (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs), and
- Is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect, and
- As a result of those care and support needs is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience, of abuse or neglect.
We also need to be mindful that not all people who experience mental health problems will be classed as an adult at risk. This is because they:
- Do not receive care or support for their mental health problem, or
- They receive care or support for their mental health problem but aren’t experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect.
However, there are people who experience mental health problems who have care or support needs, experience abuse or neglect and are unable to protect themselves. These are the attendees that are classed as adults at risk.
‘For Men To Talk’ have a duty to care for the welfare and wellbeing of adults with care and support needs and to safeguard them from the following types of abuse:
- Financial
- Neglect
- Physical
- Psychological
- Sexual
Abuse can happen to anyone and in any situation in life, especially in relationships. There are many contexts in which abuse might take place such as institutional abuse, domestic abuse, forced /arranged marriages, human trafficking, modern slavery, sexual exploitation, hate crime and cyber bullying.
As a peer support group, ‘For Men To Talk’ will never force an attendee to do something specific, we will always approach someone to make their own decisions and take action for themselves. However, we will always provide them with contact details of mental health professionals and emergency services as or when they need them.
But, as ‘For Men To Talk’ do have a duty of care to every attendee of our virtual and physical meetings, if we feel that someone is a risk to themselves or someone else, we will break any confidentiality rules in place and understandably seek professional support as soon as possible.
For more details and information, the ‘For Men To Talk’ Safeguarding Policy which can be viewed by clicking here