Older people will be given advice on keeping safe and protected from abuse at a special session later this month.

To mark World Action on Elder Abuse Day on Monday, June 15th, Gloucestershire County Council’s Chris Russell and Sarah Jasper (Adult Protection Manager and Co-ordinator) will be giving a ‘Keeping Safe’ presentation to a group of up to 20 residents at Fuller’s Court, Westgate Street, Gloucester (Anchor Retirement Housing).

The county council is running these briefing sessions to advise older people and people with learning disabilities about the nature of abuse and how to report it. The Supporting People, Adult Protection and Adult Education teams have been working with the people who use their services to decide the content and format of these briefings and to design a ‘Keeping Safe’ logo.

The Fuller’s Court presentation will include an informal discussion, a quiz and a question and answer session. There will also be a display of information leaflets and posters covering areas such as hate crime, bogus callers, the Alerters Guide, which is published by the county council, and information on a wide range of support services from organisations such as Action on Elder Abuse and Age Concern.

Gloucestershire County Council’s Group Director for Community and Adult Care, Margaret Sheather, will attend the event. The presentation will be followed by a buffet lunch, with the opportunity for further discussion with the presenters.

A session for older people has already run at Barton Court and the first briefing for people with learning disabilities took place in April. This was a day-long briefing that included a DVD and group work with people talking about who they could tell if they were worried about abuse.

Chris Russell said: “We have developed these sessions in partnership with people who may be at risk. Thankfully, serious abuse is very rare but it is important to work together to do all we can to prevent harm and to enable people to seek help if they need it.

“We have learned a lot from working together. We will be taking this learning into the work we do in future to improve services.” The county council has a long established central adult protection unit. In the past year, it has protected more than 600 adults where concerns of possible abuse have been raised and trained 6000 staff in safeguarding adults.

Gloucestershire is also currently implementing its No Secrets policy. This is guidance on how councils and their partners can make vulnerable adults safer by providing a co-ordinated response.

The county council has also worked with partners to produce an Alerters Guide for vulnerable people, which helps them to recognise if they are being abused or harmed. It uses images portraying different kinds of abuse along with simple explanations of what to do and where to report the abuse.