vulnerable adults
Defenseless mature individuals
Vulnerable adults are people who, due to age, disability, illness, or circumstances, may be unable to protect themselves from harm, abuse, or exploitation.
The term appears frequently in legal, social work, and healthcare contexts, where it defines populations requiring special protections: The charity works with vulnerable adults in care homes.
Unlike children, whose vulnerability is assumed, adults must meet specific criteria—cognitive impairment, physical frailty, mental health conditions, or dependency on others for care—to qualify for protective interventions.
- elderlyAdvanced in age
- frailWeak and breakable
- disabledMade unable to function
- mental capacityCognitive ability level
- safeguardingPreventing harm or loss
duty of care · neglect · abuse · exploitation · dependent · next of kin · power of attorney · caregiver · protection · social worker · care home · care package · dementia · isolation · helpless · guardian · advocate · at-risk
- elder abuseelder neglect, elder fraud, senior neglect, nursing home abuse, caregiver abuse
- populationspatients, inpatients, outpatients, elderly patients, stroke patients
- guardianship lawlegal guardian, legal guardianship, conservatorship, ward of court, mental capacity
- legal capacitylegal capacity, mental capacity, capacity, incapacity, competence
vulnerable adultscaregivers
Those who tend others
protectors · perpetrators · abusers · exploiters · guardians
vulnerable, adults, adult, adulthood, vulnerability, vulnerably, invulnerable, invulnerability