Self-neglect

[1] More generally, any lack of self-care in terms of personal health, hygiene and living conditions can be referred to as self-neglect.

Different societies and cultures can have different beliefs regarding acceptable living standards, making self-neglect a serious and complex problem requiring clinical, social, and ethical decisions in its management and treatment.

Self-neglect can also lead to the individual having a general reduction in attempts to maintain a healthy lifestyle, with increased smoking, drug misuse or lack of exercise.

A decrease in motivation can also be a side effect of psychiatric medications, putting those who require them at a higher risk of self-neglect than might be caused by mental illness alone.

[1][2] Risk factors are:[citation needed] Age-related changes that result in functional decline, cognitive impairment, frailty, or psychiatric illness increase vulnerability for self-neglect.

Gibbons (2006) defined it as: "The inability (intentional or non-intentional) to maintain a socially and culturally accepted standard of self-care with the potential for serious consequences to the health and well-being of the self-neglecters and perhaps even to their community.

In the UK, difficulty in attending to their physical cleanliness or need for adequate food are part of the criteria indicating whether a person is eligible for Disability Living Allowance.