For those working within the care industry, dignity in care is an extremely important concept to adhere to. Dignity in care is the practice of ensuring an individual whilst supported in their living remains respected and not stripped of their dignity.
Needing support can be a difficult concept to grasp, accepting that you can no longer perform tasks you do every day can be difficult to process. That is why the dignity in care concept is so important throughout the industry.
Of course, where an individual needs help; be that washing, preparing meals or shopping – they will receive it. Surrounding this, they should be supported in a way that not only respects their dignity – but reinforces it.
Having the ability to perform certain tasks stripped from you could leave you at a loss of your identity, the duty of carers – particularly those at Human Support Group – is to remind our customers of who they are.
The carers at Human Support Group are trained to create a system of independence rather than dependence – enabling people to live as independently and happily as possible.
So, how can we create this dynamic in our care homes? Below are just some of the small tasks our carers at Human Support Group do to respect the dignity of our customers.
Direct conversations
If you think about your identity, the biggest part of that is your name. Being called anything other than your preferred name, no matter how polite it may be, can disrespect your identity and dignity. That’s why, we have open conversations with our customers about how they would like to be addressed in a polite, not patronising, manner.
As well as this, we encourage our carers to have open conversations about the past where it is welcomed. Our carers find out the likes, dislikes, memories and hobbies of our customers in order to help them stay grounded to their roots. By knowing a specific customer used to enjoy sewing, our carers can help them in reviving that passion should the customer wish to.
Promote social activities
Our conversations don’t stop between our caregivers and customers, we actively encourage our customers to participate in social activities. This helps to reduce the feelings of isolation and loneliness that are all too familiar with our elderly communities, helping them to engage and remember what it is they like to talk and chat about.
Brighten their day
For people needing home care support, their days can often be quite mundane. We encourage our carers to highlight the small parts of their day that can bring them joy. For example, if a customer required assistance with dressing – our carers would encourage them to pick their own outfit as style is a massive identity signifier.
At mealtimes, we encourage an appealing presentation for all meals prepared for customers – these meals can make someone’s day so much better and a little bit of extra care where it can be added helps.
We are the Human Support Group and promoting dignity is exactly why we are called Human Support Group – because elderly and vulnerable people who require support are no less human than us, which is why protecting and respecting their dignity is important.
We are happy to be transparent about our processes this Good Care Month because together, we can work towards delivering the best personalised homecare to the UK.
If you want to work with Human Support Group, we have vacancies available throughout the UK. You can see all our available vacancies here.
