Psychological or emotional abuse
Psychological or emotional abuse includes verbal abuse, threats, depriving the vulnerable adult of their normal contact, humiliation, allocation of blame, controlling behaviour, intimidation, harassment, isolation or withdrawal of the adult from services or other supportive networks.
Signs of emotional abuse could include:
- Signs of the adult self-harming or self-mutilating
- Fear of certain people such as family members or carers
- Denial of a situation
- Appearing helpless, upset or reluctant to talk openly
- Being confused, disorientated or angry without any apparent cause
- Unusual behaviour such as biting or rocking
- Observing inappropriate verbal or emotional abuse
Psychological or emotional abuse can have a profound impact on the vulnerable adult’s mental health leading to them feeling threatened, humiliated or trapped and can lead to a significant change in the person’s behaviour.
Discriminatory abuse
This is a form of psychological abuse and includes the abuser making comments about the person’s physical or mental disability or impairment, age, illness, racist or sexist remarks or other forms of harassment. Making a vulnerable person feel scared, frightened, unhappy or depressed is a form of bullying and considered to be abuse.