Working with Adult Abuse

  Working with Adult Abuse
  Jacki Pritchard
  Jessica Kingsley Publishers
  ISBN 9781843105091,
  £50

  Star rating: 5/5

Every adult protection trainer should have one of these, writes Linda Naylor. This is an excellent manual which will have something useful for every trainer. It assumes no prior knowledge but also goes into good detail at advanced levels of practice.

There is a valuable section on the context and history of adult protection followed by basic awareness training including exercises looking at what is abuse, institutionalisation and bad practice. The section on handling disclosures has some good information if used carefully but could lead the worker to go too far in questioning at this early stage.

The manual includes investigation practice with a helpful emphasis on good preparation and not spoiling criminal investigations. The most useful sections are on conferences, protection planning and risk assessment. At this level, there are some good exercises for managers as well as practitioners, not available elsewhere. The chapter on conferences is particularly clear with valuable exercises for training chairs and participants. The risk assessment model alone and teaching on this makes this book worth buying. There is specific guidance on protection planning which would improve practice greatly if followed.

The chapter on recording would have benefited from some more specific practice exercises as it is too general. There are chapters focusing on abuse of younger adults, older people and ethnic minorities with case examples for each.

The book is clearly set out with very good exercises, clear instructions, further reading and many case examples.

However, the handouts are not well presented, looking old fashioned and busy. It would have been good to include Powerpoint slides as part of the pack which then could have produced flexible handouts.

Nonetheless, I recommend this book as a very worthwhile purchase for adult protection training at any level.

Linda Naylor is an independent trainer, Training Matters