WITNESS: Against abuse by health & care workers

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Britten –

From Victim to Survivor

I first became unwell with Anorexia and Bulimia in my late teens and was admitted to an eating disorder clinic in the early 1990’s weighing just five stone. I was seriously ill both physically and mentally, and an admission to the clinic was thought to be a life saving measure. I was not to know however that this was only the beginning of over a decade of being caught in the clinic’s dysfunctional web.

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Welcome to the WITNESS website

WITNESS is the professional boundaries charity. WITNESS aims to promote safe boundaries between professionals and the public. We do this by providing a range of services for professionals and the public and by working to improve public protection through policy and influencing work.

Training
Professional boundaries training is the most popular of WITNESS's training courses. Training is available for service providers and users, regulators, professional associations and others. We run a range of courses about boundaries and abuse. We develop bespoke courses for organisations and open sessions for all sectors. Courses include one and two day, skills-based and sessions for frontline workers and managers.

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Regulation watchdog publishes guidance on sexual boundaries between healthcare professionals and patients

10th January 2008

Today the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) publishes three papers on clear boundaries between health workers and people who use their services.

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Pin Down by Teresa Cooper
Reviewed in Community Care
23 August

In the Irish Republic and the US there has been some exposure of the use of children in care for drug trials. But it has taken the immense bravery of Teresa Cooper to focus attention on drug administration in the UK care system, writes Liz Davies.

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Store Updated

15th August

WITNESS's online bookstore has been updated to include the recently published survivor books 'Pindown' and 'Mummy's Witness'. For each purchase made Amazon makes a small donation to WITNESS.

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Woman's Hour 13th July

Woman's Hour interview with Gayle Sanders, whose book 'Mummy's Witness' includes an account of her abuse by a male nurse in a psychiatric hospital.

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GSCC urges talks on sexual boundaries codeCommunity Care

11 January 2008

The General Social Care Council is keen to develop codes of practice on sexual boundaries for social care staff, which has proved a recurring issue in the regulator's conduct cases. General Social Care Council chief executive Mike Wardle said: "We would like to see a similar coming together of organisations in the social care sector to examine how we might develop similar codes on sexual boundaries for social care workers. We will be talking to partner bodies about how this might be taken forward."

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News

Healthcare workers face ban on affairs with patients

yorkshire Post

Yorkshire Post

10th January

HEALTH workers will be barred from having sexual relationships with patients under new rules published today. The guidance from regulation watchdog the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) is the latest move following a landmark report into scandals in North Yorkshire involving two psychiatrists who sexually abused patients.

Regulation called for hypnotherapy

Channel 4 News

2nd January

With controversy growing over who can and can't call themselves a hypnotherapist, campaigners call for regulation to prevent abuse.

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