GSCC urges talks on sexual boundaries code

Community 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.

This follows the publication of guidance yesterday by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence designed to set out clear boundaries between health professionals and patients.

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."

The GSCC has held 27 conduct cases, nine of which have involved allegations about inappropriate relationships between social workers and service users.

Healthcare workers face ban on affairs with patients

The Yorkshire Post 10th January 2008

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.

Campaigners have welcomed the measures which also give health workers a duty to report colleagues who they believe are involved in inappropriate relationships with patients. Advice is also given to health workers about avoiding sexual behaviour and dealing with situations when patients behave inappropriately.

Staff will also be advised to take professional advice if they embark on relationships with former patients under the guidelines which are expected to be adopted by all UK health regulators.

Kathy Haq, who leads a support group for patients of the two North Yorkshire doctors William Kerr and Michael Haslam and is also a nurse, said: "This is the final part of what we wanted to see when we set out in 2000. "We wanted an inquiry, the truth to be told and action to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. Not one more person should suffer what we did."

Inquiries into Kerr, who died in 2006, and Haslam, 73, who was jailed for abusing three patients, uncovered evidence they had assaulted vulnerable women patients over a number of years despite concerns of colleagues which were never acted upon,while others turned a blind eye. Jonathan Coe, chief executive of the support group Witness, said: "These new guidelines help to raise awareness of the need for safe boundaries between professionals and the public.

Regulation called for hypnotherapy

Channel Four News 2nd Janaury 2008

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

Hypnotherapy is used to treat all manner of 21st-century neurosis. And with so many new year resolutions just waiting to be broken, more and more people are turning to the ancient art of mesmerism.

For some, just sitting in the park is difficult. It could be the open wide spaces or it could just as easily be the cramped tiny ones.

Alongside phobias, the modern age is racked with addictions from smoking and drinking to over-eating - some just don't know where to stop...

But it's possible to set up as a hypnotherapist with little more qualification than a short correspondence course. This, say campaigners, leads to abuse.

Witness, an organistion set up to help people who have been abused by health and social care workers and working to prevent abuse, received seven complaints about hypnotherapists in two years.

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