The Kent and Medway Study: Incidence of Referrals, Nature and Risk Factors

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The Kent and Medway Study Incidence of
Referrals, Nature and Risk Factors

• Jim Mansell

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The project aimed to

• Provide updated information on the incidence,
  characteristics and risk factors for abuse in two
  local authorities
• Provide initial evaluation of the effectiveness
  of No Secrets by comparison of statistics over
  time
• Identify lessons for management, practice and
  policy implementation
• Provide comparative data on prevalence in
  different groups
• Inform future development and use of data
  monitoring systems

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Methodology

• Data from the adult protection databases of Kent
  and Medway councils were amalgamated into one
  dataset
• Where possible, data was cross-matched with other
  variables from social service databases
• Analysis used descriptive and inferential
  methods. Binary logistic regression was used
  where appropriate to explore what predicted
  outcome and responses to alerts of abuse

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Incidence of alerts per 100,000 total population
by year
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Client group
60
50
40
all alerts
30
20
10
0
Kent
Medway
Total
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Living situation
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Type of abuse
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Location of abuse
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Summary

• The number of alerts has risen steadily since
  1998
• Almost 60 of alerts related to older people and
  almost a third to people with a learning
  disability. The number of alerts for younger
  adults with a mental health problem was very
  small
• There was substantial variation between councils
  and districts
• The most common type of abuse recorded was
  multiple abuse, followed by physical abuse and
  neglect. Type of abuse varied by client group
• The extent to which risk factors for abuse could
  be examined was constrained because of limited
  data
• Overall, the combination of gender, age and
  residential placement puts people at risk of
  abuse. In general abuse takes place where the
  client lives and tends to be perpetrated by those
  close to them or caring for them in that setting