To report to social services?

[Unknown18]

Boy is just turned 18. Has low level autism and a physical condition. Seeing him recently, he is very very skinny. He has progressively gotten skinnier over the past few months but is now definitely underweight. His mum goes away often leaving him at home with his siblings, one a year older, two younger. Would you report?

If you have concerns about a vulnerable adult then nothing is lost by making your worries known to social care.

Same if there are any concerns about the children's safety in his care due to his capacity to care for them.

Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.

In situations where things are missed and there's a case in the media there's always threads where people ask how it could have happened, but on threads where people have concerns too often a lot of posters try to put people off sharing concerns.

But how do you actually know this? You know this young man is underweight and you know he has diabetes, but how do you know this is because he isn't taking his medication? How do you know he simply isn't eating for other reasons? You also seem to think you know what type of diabetes he has and what caused it, but again, this seems to be an assumption on your part.

Leaving an 18-year-old adult alone for a few days at a time is not, in itself, a legal or a welfare issue unless they lack capacity to make decisions and look after themselves. There will, for example, be thousands of 'low-level' autistic adults with health conditions who are away at university and living independently 24/7.

Ultimately, if you believe he is a vulnerable adult who isn't capable of taking care of himself, or you believe the younger children in the house are not being cared for by the two adult siblings (which actually seems to me like the more concerning issue here?) then of course you should contact social services.

However, reading between the lines of your posts, you do seem to have quite an axe to grind with his mother, and I'm wondering what your motives really are here.

Because he told me. And all the signs are there, eg completely lost feeling in his feet. Once watched him have a hypo, reading at around 20. He then asked his mum to drop off his equipment, she couldn’t because she was in London. Another time, he stayed at a house, and was meant to be picked up after one night. His mum then said she could pick him up at 3am. She didn’t come, and didn’t for another 2 nights.

Oh goodness, I am so, incredibly sorry. Both myself and my son are type 1. It is an incredibly hard disease. Thinking of you and sending you a huge unmumsnetty hug

@ManateeFair that's so sad, and so scary. I'd agree with others that it's a good chance he has mis/undiagnosed type 1, but either way he isn't being receiving the care he needs and I would report this to social services immediately. I can't overstate how vulnerable diabetics can be to serious complications and/or worse if the condition isn't managed - honestly it just takes one bad hypo or ketones - and it sounds like he really needs some support. Please report it as soon as you can

Hypo = low blood sugar.
Hyper= high blood sugar.

High blood sugar from not taking insulin can lead to really rapid weight loss and all the other things you have mentioned. Please report this to adult social care as it sounds like this person is very vulnerable right now and needs support.

It sounds like he talks you you sometimes. If he's telling you that his sugar levels are in the 20s that's really high, and If he doesn't have his insulin available it's really time for A&E. DKA can come on quickly, especially if he's missing his background insulin regularly.