Vulnerable adult

[Gigi1964]

I know this is not strictly Mumsnet material, but my daughter swears by this site and I need some advice. There may be some social workers/tax inspectors/people in the know who can point me in the right direction.

Basically, my 80-year-old uncle has had mental health issues in the past and lives with my cousin who is supposed to care for him. He sleeps in the playroom on a sofa bed, is very isolated and they take £2000 plus from him for the privilege. I have no idea if they declare this, but they certainly live the high life on this money as well as at least £1000 from the rent of his former home. They have just swanned off on holiday for 2 weeks, leaving their three children (20, 18 and 14) in charge of him. He has today been admitted to hospital for dehydration. The whole situation is appalling, but he is a very gentle soul who does not want to upset the apple art and says that his daughter needs the income from him.

How can I move forward with this situation? It is disgusting that she takes that amount of money from her own father, and there is no caring as such apart from making sure he takes his medication.

[Marchate]

That is elder abuse. I heard something about it on the radio yesterday. I'm in Scotland. The article was saying we are fortunate to have a specific law on elder abuse, unlike the rest of the UK

Maybe go to Citizens' Advice? Or look up Elder Abuse to see if there is advice online?

[Foxyspook]

If he is consenting to your relatives doing this, then it is not abuse. Just because hr had mental illness, it doesn't mean that he doesn't know what he is doing. You can talk to his daughter but I don't think she is doing anything illegal.

Has anyone got power of attorney?

[bloodypassword]

Contact your local authority and speak to social services and report this as an urgent adults safeguarding concern. State that it is urgent and that you concerned about neglect and financial exploitation.

Good luck OP. This is shocking but, unfortunately, not uncommon

[Mishaps]

If this gentleman is in hospital you can ask for a referral to the social worker and express your concerns. They will treat this in confidence. If he has been admitted with dehydration then there should be alarm bells ringing with the ward staff in any case and they may already have made a referral.

The whole of this will hinge on a decision about whether he has mental capacity to make the choice to be where he is and pay what he does. If he does have capacity there is little you can do about it. It is appalling and immoral, but if he is deemed able to make the choice, then it is problematical.

One of the ways of dealing with this is to suggest that some day care is found for the person, perhaps just one day a week - it is a way of getting him out into another context where people can keep a bit of an eye on him.

I was a hospital social worker and this sort of referral is sadly not at all unusual.