When the Dignity in Care campaign began in November 2006, the aim was to inspire health & social care staff and local people to place dignity and compassion at the heart of care services, and in their communities. Ten years on and an army of over 155,000 Dignity Champions are all doing their bit to make a difference in peoples’ lives.
We reached out to our Staff teams and Service Users to ask them ‘What does Dignity mean to you?’. Here are some of the responses that form part of our ‘Digni-tree’:
“Respecting my equal rights, empowerment, Respecting my beliefs, Treating with respect, Individuality, Communication, Choice.”
Vallene, Service Manager
“For people to be Kind and Friendly.”
Tracey, Service User
“To respect dignity, to ensure that privacy is upheld and information kept private, To treat as would want to be treated.”
Kerry, Acting Senior Support Worker
“Respect peoples wishes, be respectful towards the person you are supporting, ensure privacy and confidentiality.”
Jill, Support Worker
“To ensure that preferences are followed, that people are offered choice, to respect privacy.”
Julia, Team Leader
“To respect the person, to ensure dignity and privacy.”
Heidi, Support Worker
“Being valued and respected for who you are and what you believe in, to be offered choice and to be treated as an individual.”
Carol, Service Manager
“Making sure we are respecting all, respect individual privacy, ensure they do not feel vulnerable.”
Donna, Team Leader
“To be treated with respect – to be treated like everyone else – to be offered choice.”
Madison, Senior Support Worker
“To ensure service users are comfortable and safe in their environment – to have privacy and be respected.”
Naomi, Support Worker
“Privacy, freedom and to be entitled to speak out, freedom of speech.”
Evie, Team Leader
“Privacy and choice.”
Jade, Support Worker
“Respecting people, respecting someone faith, involving service users in their support plans, allowing them to speak out.”
Louise, Support Worker
“To be treated like an adult, to have reassurance and to be kept safe.”
Jen, Service User
“Treating people with respect, and to treat them as I would like to be treated.”
Emma, Operations Manager
“Being valued and respected for who you are and for what each individual believes in and how they choose to live their life.”
Heather, Group Operations Manager
“The training team are committed to embedding the importance of working with dignity in our training sessions, as it incorporates the person centred approach to the care we aim to deliver. It also reflects the values we have in the training department.”
Karren, Training Manager
In the words of Joan Bakewell who supports the campaign “Dignity Action Day highlights a more respectful way of behaving towards vulnerable people. The very old and the very young clearly need our respect, but it wouldn’t do any harm to spread the dignity message across the population then we can all benefit.”
Anybody can support dignity action day, to find out more log onto www.dignityincare.org.uk