Dignity, Respect and Values

This course focuses on the importance of dignity and respect in health and social care.

Content includes:

• Experiential activities to understand the personal impact of a lack of dignity and respect
• The importance of personal dignity and how small changes can make big differences
• Awareness of actions that can invade privacy, without realising
• Exploration of different methods of supporting people to make their own choices
• How dementia impacts upon dignity and respect
• Inappropriate care and support that is not dignified or respectful and how to challenge this.

Is Dignity and Respect part of the Care Certificate?
Answer: Yes, Dignity and Respect are included in Standard 7 of the Care Certificate, which is named, Privacy and Dignity.  Dignity and respect should underpin all health and social care practices.

Does Dignity and Respect include making choices?
Answer:  Supporting a person to make choices about how they wish to live their life is an important part of integrating dignity and respect into their care and support. The choices that people make can be small, such as their choice of clothing for the day, or whether they would prefer a drink of tea or coffee; or they may be more complex, such as whether they wish to have an operation in hospital.  It is important that every effort is made to allow people to have control over their own lives.  Finding alternative ways to communicate can help, if verbal communication is difficult, such as signing, writing and drawing, agreeing on facial communication such as open your eyes for “yes” and close them for “no”.  To learn more about how to include dignity and respect in your practice, why not join one of our dignity and respect training courses?