- Published: November 13, 2021
- Updated: November 13, 2021
- University / College: Boston University
- Language: English
- Downloads: 42
In this essay, I will be assessing the likely immediate effects and to also evaluate the potential long term effects of the two types of abuse on health and wellbeing of adults. The two abuses which I would be evaluating is physical abuse and psychological abuse, how both abuse can affect a vulnerable adult in the long and short term affect. Physical abuse: Those Vulnerable adults who had experienced physical abuse can have a short term and a significant impact on the person’s life. A short term affect would be if a service provider were to continuously beat a service user this can leave bruises on their body. This would mean the vulnerable adult needs medical attention and if they don’t get this it can affect their health due to the bruises left on the service user body. This would leave the service user in pain and agony which could lead to the service user self-harming themselves.
For example an old adult who is vulnerable and are being abuse by service provider would have less physical strength and less physical flexibility or could already have disabilities or impairments which makes them vulnerable. With older people their bones can break more easily and takes long to heal. If a service provider were to physically abuse an old vulnerable adult it’s likely the old vulnerable adult develop injuries which would lead to serious harm or death. For example, physical abuse may result in a hip fracture. Another immediate effect is that those vulnerable adult who had experience physical abuse would also often experience isolation, depression or anxiety. It is said that these signs may be mistaken for memory loss or illness; however they are really affected of stress and worry. Another immediate affect would be if the vulnerable adult is sad, feel shame and embarrassment about what had happened to them and the vulnerable adult may start to eat less, use more medications to try and cope with the emotional and physical hurt.
Another affect would be the vulnerable adult may have difficulty sleeping or sleep too much so they wouldn’t have to wake up o physical abuse. A long term effect of physical abuse would be health problems which a vulnerable adult could develop due to their experience of physical abuse. Those who suffer from physical abuse are said to be a major source of stress and can have long term effects on the health and well-being of the vulnerable adult. The stress of the physical abuse could trigger chest pain or angina and may be a factor in other serious health problems which includes high blood pressure, breathing problems, stomach problems (ulcers) and a panic attack this are all related problems of being stressed which are the symptoms among those who experienced physical abuse.
Many injuries which a vulnerable adult might have sustained when they were physically abused can affect them as they continue to get older. Some long term affect would include arthritis this is when a vulnerable adult get pains in their joints. They suffer from hypertension this is when the vulnerable adult gets high blood pressure, heart disease this is a heart condition, sexually transmitted disease this is if the sexual abuse was part of the physical abuse and chronic pain syndromes which is a poor etiology and poor response to therapy and an ongoing pain which lasts longer than six months. Psychological abuse:
The effects of psychological abuse would be harder to spot; the effects of psychological can be as severe as those who had experienced physical abuse. Those whose who are emotionally abused are likely to blame themselves and minimize their abuser which could be a service provider or part of that vulnerable adult family. The short term effects of an psychological abuse the vulnerable adult could suffer from confusion this is when the vulnerable adult doubt they are being emotionally abused or this vulnerable adult may already be suffering from a disability and could create confusion of if they are being emotionally abuse or they don’t realize they are being emotionally abused. Another short term effect the vulnerable adult might have is that, they will begin to question their own memory depending on the situation.
For example if the vulnerable adult was being emotionally abuse at their home they would find it hard to believe and question if it really happened, because they themselves might find it hard to believe that their family can emotionally abuse them and treat them like that. The vulnerable adult can suffer from anxiety or fear this is when the vulnerable adult is worried, nervous or unease due to the fear of not wanting to be emotionally abused. The vulnerable adult can feel shame or guilt to blame themselves that the abuse which they are experiencing is their fault. Another short term affect the vulnerable adult can experience is aggression which can be brought on as a defence to the abuse. The vulnerable adult can also experience frequent crying due to the emotional abuse they are experiencing for example service provider constantly telling service users they are not good enough and the service user suffered from a disability which doesn’t allow them to do basic activities.
The vulnerable adult would also tend to avoid eye contacts due to the fact they have a low self-esteem and they felt shameful. With psychological abuse it would make the vulnerable adult feeling powerless and defenceless due to the fact they are vulnerable either they are of old age or suffer from a disability or occasionally they could suffer from both. They would feel manipulated, used and controlled which would allow the service provider or those at home to take more control over the vulnerable adult due to this state of mind allowing the emotionally abuse to carry on. Another short term affect would be the vulnerable adult feeling undesirable which would lower their self-esteem to them feeling that they can never be loves. The long term effects psychologically abuse would be the vulnerable adult being depressed this is when the vulnerable adult is in a low mood and other symptoms each day and this can become severe enough to interfere with the vulnerable adult normal day to day activities.
The vulnerable adult can also suffer from withdrawal the vulnerable adult would also suffer from low self-esteem and self-worth the vulnerable adult would feel incapable and incompetent and they would feel poorly about themselves and this feeling may cause the person’s continued low self-esteem. A long term affect is that the vulnerable adult can suffer from emotional instability which is the experience of mood changes which can be dramatic and very severe. Vulnerable adult can also suffer from sleeping disturbances finding it hard to sleep due to the emotionally abuse they had experience, also suffer from physical pain without cause. The vulnerable adult can have a long term of suicidal ideation, thoughts or attempts of them trying to kill themselves for example cutting themselves.
The vulnerable adult would also be inability to trust due to their experience they would not be able to trust others and it could also leave the vulnerable adult trapped and alone and would continue to isolate themselves. Overall health and social professional would need to have the knowledge of the short and long term effects of abuse for them to be able to understand a vulnerable adult who might have been abused. With their knowledge they can know how to support the vulnerable adult and how they can begin to help the vulnerable adult to overcome some of their problems.