SCIE Practice guide 09: Dignity in care
Dignity challenge
4. Enable people to maintain the maximum possible level of independence, choice and control
By this we mean:
People receiving services are helped to make a positive contribution to daily life and to be involved in decisions about their personal care. Care and support are negotiated and agreed with people receiving services as partners. People receiving services have the maximum possible choice and control over the services they receive.
Dignity tests:
- Do we ensure staff deliver care and support at the pace of the individual?
- Do we avoid making unwarranted assumptions about what people want or what is good for them?
- Do individual risk assessments promote choice in a way that is not risk-averse?
- Do we provide people receiving services the opportunity to influence decisions regarding our policies and practices?
Some ideas from practice:
- On the road to independence - Betty’s story
- Maintaining dignity despite incontinence
- Small, effective changes, not changing the world
- Palliative care support: Macmillan’s and local council working together
- Communicating Choice (County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust)
- Making a home: Zoe’s story
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