Dignity in care
The Dignity Campaign aims to encourage carers and the general public to treat older and disabled people with dignity and respect.
Many of us go about our daily lives and don’t realise we’re patronising older people, or don’t realise we’re raising our voices when we talk to disabled people.
“I feel I was not given any privacy or thought when I was in a most vulnerable position.”
Complaint from a man whose case
was openly discussed in the corridor
at a local hospital.
The 10 dignity challenges
As part of the campaign we will:
- have a zero tolerance to all forms of abuse
- support people with the same respect you would want for yourself or a member of your family
- treat each person as an individual by offering a personalised service
- enable people to maintain the maximum possible level of independence, choice and control
- listen and support people to express their needs and wants
- respects people’s right to privacy
- ensure people feel able to complain without fear of retribution
- engage with family members and carers as care partners
- assist people to maintain confidence and a positive self esteem
- act to alleviate people’s loneliness and isolation.
Show your support
- If you support the Dignity Campaign and the 10 challenges then tick the box below and click on the 'submit' button to pledge your support.
- If you know of any cases where people using our services haven’t been treated with dignity, or you have any other comments about the Dignity campaign please write them in the text box underneath. If you need us to contact you to follow up your comments please include your name and contact details.
(You can only type up to 1000 characters in the text box.)
What are we doing to encourage dignity?
Dignity events
We are holding high profile conferences where staff from the Council, residential care homes, health services and day care services came together to learn from each other and share what they can do to promote dignity.
You can download and read a copy of the latest conference report.
Simon Weston spoke at the event and said: "I wholeheartedly support Nottinghamshire County Council’s Dignity Campaign. Many people don’t realise how they treat others and I have, on too many occasions, been a spoken to, looked at, and treated without any respect and made to feel like a second class citizen. Whether someone is disabled, disfigured, elderly or just found themselves in a vulnerable position, we all deserve to be treated with dignity because underneath we are all the same - human beings."
Dignity Champions
We are developing a network of Dignity Champions. These are people from both the County Council and independent care providers who actively promote ‘dignity in care’ and challenge services when they fail to meet standards. We already have over 650 people involved and are actively recruiting more.
- See our leaflet ‘ Dignity in Care - Becoming a Dignity Champion’
Rewarding quality services
We include questions about dignity when we measure the quality of care provided by care homes. Homes that show they provide a higher quality service receive more money from us. This encourages homes to provide better services for local people.
Publicity
Promoted the idea of dignity widely to care staff using newsletters, posters, leaflets and our staff website. Raised the issue publicly using our website and local radio adverts.
You can listen to the radio adverts here:
- Dignity radio advert 1 [mp3 476KB]
- Dignity radio advert 2 [mp3 476KB]
- Dignity radio advert 3 [mp3 476KB]
Complaints
We have a special category in our complaints process to record problems where people haven’t been treated with dignity and respect. This allows us to look at common themes or areas of concern.
- See our leaflet encouraging people to report where they feel they haven’t been treated with dignity.
If you want to make a complaint about how you have been treated then fill in our online complaints form or call our Customer Service Centre. Tel: 08449 80 80 80.
What you can do!
- Tick the box to show you support the Dignity Campaign.
- Think more about how you treat others in your daily life.
- Tell your friends, family and colleagues about our campaign and encourage them to think about how they treat others.
