SCIE Practice guide 09: Dignity in care
Dignity in care within mental health
This section was updated in August 2007
Introduction
The Dignity in Care Campaign, launched in November 2006, aims to eliminate tolerance of services that don’t respect dignity. The initial focus for the campaign has been on older people, because they were identified as the group most at risk of not experiencing dignity when in contact with health and social care services.
The campaign is now being rolled out further and will look at issues relevant to dignity in mental health services. Ultimately, the campaign will be extended to all health and social care services.
What constitutes a dignified service does of course differ in some ways depending on the client group. Much of the information in this practice guide will be relevant to any client group. However, there are some specific areas of mental health services in which dignity may be more of an issue.
Recent evidence and feedback from stakeholders highlighted key areas where maintaining dignity is at risk:
Subject to further consultation with key stakeholders and mental health users it is intended to extend the dignity in care campaign to focus these key areas.
This section of the guide looks at mental health and dignity in care. It provides a range of resources and links to some specific practice examples which may be helpful to people working in mental health services.
Ideas from practice
Practice examples are self-reported and have not been evaluated.
- Enhanced pathways into care (EPiC), Sheffield
- Improving the mealtime experience (Methodist Homes for the Aged)
- Life story books (St Pancras Hospital, London)
- Local Care Centre Cafe (Plymouth Primary Care Trust/Mental Health Partnership)
- Palliative care support (Macmillan Cancer Support/Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust)
- Success through the Single Assessment Process (Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre, Smethwick)
Other resources
Legislation relevant to offering dignified
services within Mental Health:
The Mental Capacity Act will help underpin similar
values to those upheld in the Dignity in Care Campaign.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 aims to empower people
who lack capacity to make decisions, put them at the
heart of the decision-making process, and provide clear
safeguards for them and their families. It establishes
important principles for professionals who work with
this client group. The Act offers better protection
because for the first time it tells everyone what the
law expects. It makes it clear who can
take decisions in which situations
and how they should go about this.
It aims to protect vulnerable people, carers and professionals.
Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy Service from April 2007 - This document provides guidance on the new Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy service, in England, and the new criminal offence in England and Wales that are introduced by the Mental Capacity Act from April 2007 and the planned implementation of the whole Act by October 2007.
Link: Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy Service from April 2007
For more information about legislation and how it relates to Dignity in Care, please look out for our forthcoming Guide to Dignity in Care Legislation which will be placed on the site shortly.
The National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) - NIMHE (part of the Care Services Improvement Partnership) works with the NHS, social care and beyond, helping all those involved in mental health to implement positive change.
Currently, NIMHE are addressing some key priorities in Mental Health, including:
- a comprehensive programme to deliver race equality in mental health services
- a national programme on social inclusion
- new programmes to give people more choice in the services they can receive, and to give people greater access to psychological therapies
- work on primary care including commissioning
- workforce
- a new programme to support services to measure outcomes as part of their routine practice.
Link: NIMHE
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