Plea to help keep all adults safe in Orkney

“We all have a role to play in keeping adults safe and protected in Orkney.” 

That’s according to Lynne Nicolson, Team Manager, Social Worker and Mental Health Officer with Orkney Health and Care (OHAC) speaking on National Adult Support and Protection Awareness Day (20 February). 

She explained that OHAC receives, on average, 2-4 adult support and protection referrals every week, but there may be more people out there who are in need of protection. 

“We are able to look into these cases and take steps to keep people safe and protected but we have concerns about the people we are not made aware of, in particular those who have become more isolated or less visible. 

“We cannot take steps to protect people, if we don’t know about them. If you are worried about someone or if something just doesn’t seem right, please tell services about your concerns – think of it as an information jigsaw: what you know may be an important part of the jigsaw which will help us understand if a person needs support or protection. Services including Social Work, Health, Police and voluntary agencies have been working hard to support and protect adults at risk of harm, but it is up to all of us to play our part.” 

This year’s national focus is on raising awareness of how to support adults that may be at risk and the growing issue of ‘sextortion scams’ (fake emails are one of the most popular ways of sextortion, and the email will likely contain poorly worded English, demanding the victim to pay a large sum of money to protect the content from being shared and distributed). 

For more information visit www.actagainstharm.org or  https://www.youtube.com/@IRISSvideo/videos.