The course has been funded by the National HSCP Office, HSE. As such, places are available to social workers in the publicly funded healthcare service only.

It will take place over two sessions from 9.30am – 1.30pm on 6^th and 27^th May.

€100 deposit refundable on course completion and attendance at both course days.

Deborah Barnett is a qualified social worker with experience across all aspects of adult services. Deborah has been a member of the Safeguarding Adults Board within her local authority of Durham and runs a successful training and consultancy business, T-ASC (training, advice, solutions & consultancy).  Deborah conduct’s consultancy work in any aspect of the Safeguarding Adults Board work. She has experience of chairing / authoring Safeguarding Adults Reviews / Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews, chairing Safeguarding Adults Board and provides advice, guidance and training to Safeguarding Adults Board partners.

Deborah is the author of a number of Safeguarding articles and two safeguarding adults’ books. “Self Neglect and Hoarding: A Guide to Safeguarding and Support” & “The Straightforward Guide to Safeguarding Adults: From Getting the Basics Right to Applying Care Act and Criminal Investigations.”

Some of Deborah’s other key achievements include:

• Chair and panel member for complaints reviews
• Member of Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards
• Independent Social Work and consultancy
• Public Speaker in Safeguarding Adults, Domestic Abuse and Mental Capacity Act at large national conference events such as Community Care Live and Health Care UK Conferences
• ADASS Chair for 12 North Eastern Local Authorities (Safeguarding Training)
• Developed and delivered accredited Safeguarding Training up to L6 in conjunction with Teesside University
• Created a successful response to self-neglect and deliver consultancy / services
• Consultancy work in Safeguarding Adult Policy development and Mental Capacity Act policy development
• Consultancy work in Safeguarding Adult Quality Assurance and Governance arrangements
• Consultancy work in Safeguarding Adult Board Development Sessions
• Local and national research in Safeguarding Adults in conjunction with Universities and Safeguarding Adults Boards

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Participants will be supported to:

• Recognise why people self-neglect
• Recognise the role of past trauma in self-neglect and on a person’s ability to function
• Risk assessment and planned response to ensure safety
• Consider systems in place and what is needed in agency to provide an effective service

Aim Session 1: To recognise why people self-neglect

Objectives:

• To note the importance of understanding the persons story of what happened to them from early childhood
• To recognise trauma through body language and responses
• To identify the impact of trauma on a persons ability to function
• To know how to support a person to overcome the impact of trauma

Aim Session 2: To identify ways to keep a person safe and well when self-neglecting

Objectives:

• To understand the need for early intervention
• To recognise the need for a multi-agency response
• To work with the person regarding decision making
• To prevent the ‘hot potato’ situation – services passing the individual around from service to service without results
• To chair multi-agency meeting – agenda
• To risk assess and plan proportionate responses

The IASW Special Interest Group on Ageing (SIGA) identified a need for this CPD opportunity which was provided in 2022. See below for feedback from that sold out course:

This has increased my understanding of the issue of self-neglect and hoarding behaviour which social workers are encountering in their practice on an escalating scale.

This training reinforced my belief in the necessity of working in partnership with the person as regards decision making. I also learned how to use the materials provided to carry out risk assessments and how to plan appropriate responses incorporating a multi-agency approach. 

I've learnt about trauma-informed practice before, but this activity gave me much more focused details on how to adopt a trauma-informed system. I also learnt about how trauma affects executive functioning, which is a connection I hadn't made before even though I was aware of some of the individual functions impacted by trauma. 

That training with Deborah Barnett was the best training I have attended organised by IASW.

The Power Threat Meaning Framework, while I didn’t fully understand it at the time of the training, it has made me think about questions of power and meaning in my work and interventions with clients and staff I supervise. 

Wealth of information provided in relation to assessing capacity; and the importance of taking executive functioning and the person’s ability to utilise skills in a concrete situation into account.

Importance of understanding and tailoring an intervention to a person’s history; rather than focussing solely on addressing the problem behaviour.

In order to integrate this learning into my practice, the first principle that I adhere to is to be trauma informed. I  learned that we need to ask ourselves whether the difficult to reach person is not engaging with us or are we not engaging with them ?

I had never heard of formulation prior to this training and have since done my own bit of research on it. I think it is a great way to give some structure and guidance in how we should approach self-neglect.