A framework for good practice in interagency interventions with cases of self-neglect

Self-neglect is probably more common than has generally been thought and gives rise to a number of difficult conceptual, identification and intervention problems for health and social care workers. These patient management issues are compounded by the lack of any evidence-base for practice which nurses can draw on when faced with managing people who self-neglect. Nurses working with self-neglecters operate in an interdisciplinary context which includes professional groups, such as environmental health officers, who do not normally figure within health and social care teams. In the absence of such an evidence-base, a pragmatic solution in the form of a framework for interagency practice has been proposed. The background underpinning this framework, including a research study of housing in self-neglect and interagency responses, is briefly outlined in this paper.