On the question of vulnerability

ABSTRACT

Within the Government’s COVID-19 strategy three groups of “vulnerable people” are defined (HM Government, 2020, p. 51) The “Clinically Extremely Vulnerable” (at greatest risk of severe disease because of other health conditions around whom a “protective shield” should be wrapped);The “Clinically Vulnerable” (at higher risk of severe disease because of their age or health condition);and “Vulnerable People (Non-clinical)” who may require support for other reasons. The traditional image of people with serious mental health challenges as unpredictable and inadequate and frequently dangerous has often placed them in the “low competence/low warmth” quadrant, evoking fear, anger and disgust – “contemptuous prejudice” (Table 1). [...]the entitlement to support was embedded in the Department of Health (2000) definition of a “vulnerable adult” as someone […] who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age, or illness;and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation. Vulnerability is a universal condition but there are some people and groups of people who are rendered vulnerable by lack of resources, social support and services and by discriminatory social organisation and structures (Herring, 2016) We cannot accept charitable solutions to structural problems.