Why is dignity and privacy important

Someone with dignity carries herself well. If you lose an election, and you say nasty things about your opponent and try to undermine her, you are acting without dignity. It may look like the same thing—treating the person with respect versus treating that person with dignity but it is an important distinction. Respect acknowledges the behavior while dignity teaches the importance of civility and humanity.

A person never loses his or her dignity. There may of course be attacks on dignity, such as exploitation, murder or abandonment, but always a person will retain a fundamental dignity, which is the basis of his or her rights.

Having dignity means being treated with respect AND treating others with respect. Are you on Instagram or Snapchat? If someone takes a picture of you that reflects your true self, that shows respect for you and strengthens your dignity.

Respect is also established by supporting other members of the health care team…. Calmly explain what the problem is and how their behavior is affecting you. Use I-focused language so that the other person does not feel accused. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Blog Why is dignity and privacy important? At 78 I finally feel I'm safe to be me. The biggest challenge is enabling people to understand that equality and diversity is the thread that runs through everything and not a standalone issue.

Clear, consistent and regular communication for both staff and the people we support has facilitated this, alongside our vision and the rationale of our equality and diversity business case. Personal, confidential information about a person using a service will normally be held by the managers in any social care setting or agency and only shared with other staff in the organisation on a need-to-know basis.

The GDPR sets out seven key principles :. Social care managers and employers will also need to be aware of how the new regulations will affect employment practice. Confidential conversations with staff are important to people who use services. Research has shown that people value opportunities for one-to-one conversation and advice. University of East Anglia, But what are you to do when someone discloses abuse of some kind — to themselves or another person — in the course of a confidential conversation?

Concerns about abuse or neglect must always be reported in line with your internal policies — usually to your line manager.

View the full video. Managers and safeguarding leads will decide whether information should be shared with external agencies. Those who make these decisions will need to be familiar with issues of consent and the law relating to information sharing. Anna moved into her current care home where you are a care worker three years ago. She has a number of long-term conditions, including mild dementia. Her English is not very good, but she gets by, and has made good friends among the other residents.

Ted lives alone in a flat, and has severely reduced mobility as a result of a traffic accident some years ago. He receives daily support from you.

His only local relative is a nephew, who sometimes visits at weekends. One day Ted admits to you that over the past few months he has given most of his savings to the young man to help him buy an expensive new car. Ted is now short of money for essentials. How do systems, processes and practices safeguard people from abuse? Technological solutions are being explored in many areas of social care: commissioning, recruitment, management, training and the development of partnerships.

More recently, the focus has been on the potential of reducing risk without restricting freedom. I hear the buzzer on my iPad, and I open it up.

Mealtimes are a highlight of the day so it is crucial that they can enjoy this as much as possible. Personal hygiene, practical assistance and privacy often fall into the same category of areas where maintaining dignity is important. Your patient or resident may feel awkward about being washed and dressed by another person and not feel comfortable about being naked.

To help maintain dignity always ask for consent first and use the time to chat. Listening to the radio or having the TV on may help distract the person, but again always ask for permission first. This would be a massive invasion of privacy.

Imagine if somebody entered your home uninvited and then started rifling through your drawers and possessions! In many cases, the best way to understand the needs of your residents is to take time to chat and listen to what they say. It can be hard to find the time for a quick minute one-to-one conversation, but it is extremely important to wellbeing.

We all like to be listened to, after all, and engaging in some quality time with the people in your care can be enriching for both parties. In addition, your resident is more likely to open up to you if they are experiencing any difficulties or pain and feel that you will listen. Taking time to chat with the people in your care makes a big difference to their morale and mood.

It may be the only proper conversation they have all day and it does make a big difference. Care is a difficult and demanding job but the importance of maintaining dignity should never be overlooked. To make this easier, the National Dignity Council has identified seven key principles.

This was devised in and gives guidance to people working in social care of the best way to offer care and support. Many care environments can be challenging, and sadly there is a culture in some care homes and nursing homes of a callous indifference to the people who are dependent upon care.

And with the usual staffing shortages and heavy workload it can be very easy to overlook the feelings and needs of the residents; in many cases care staff work against the clock in order to complete the physical tasks of washing, cleaning and toilet visits within a limited time frame. In truth it does not take too much adjustment in order to turn this around. It usually comes down to staff training and attitude of management.

Many care workers will follow the example and the attitude of management, so it is crucially important to ensure that you lead by example if you want to have a well maintained and happy nursing or care home.

At the end of the day, the main requirement for any care home is that the residents are safe, looked after and are as happy as possible. This means that the residents should be treated with dignity and respect in all aspects of their daily life as well as their basic physical needs being met. If you ever have any concerns about the level of care and dignity in your workplace, you should raise these with management first if appropriate. Alternatively you can report it to the Care Quality Commission.

If you find it difficult to remember the guidelines, an easy way to treat people with the dignity they deserve, is to put yourself in their position. Outside work Jane enjoys playing music, learning foreign languages and swimming in the sea even when it is far too cold for comfort!

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