Since their inception, the Ethox Centre and the Ethox Foundation have had a shared interest in the care and treatment of vulnerable adults, including issues arising in the care of older people. This is an important priority for two main reasons. The first of these is that the care and treatment of vulnerable adults presents an increasing range of complex and important ethical and communication issues of concern to patients, carers and health professionals. The second is that, despite the importance of these issues for practice, very little work is being done on the issues arising in this important area of health care and very little funding is available for such work from bodies other than the Foundation.

This initiative, funded by the Ethox Foundation, will lead to the development of a sustainable programme of empirical ethics research, training and clinical ethics support on the care and treatment of vulnerable adults. The aims of the initiative are to:

For more information about thsi project contact michael.dunn@ethox.ox.ac.uk