Dignity Day 2012
Brighton and Hove City Council:
On National Dignity Action Day, 1st February 2012, Dignity in Care will be celebrated in Brighton and Hove. Several Care Services have already committed to holding a ‘Getting to Know You’ Event. The individuals we meet in care services have rich and varied life experiences. Too often all we get time to see are their problems. Dignity Action Day will help remind us all of our respect for the individual lives and achievements of everyone we work with.
Sharing achievements and experiences helps people using services to get to know and respect each other too. In national and local surveys people repeatedly tell us that relationships with others, being valued as an individual and having something to do are all really important for experiencing dignity and quality of life.
We are asking all Services to help celebrate Dignity Action Day by having Getting to Know You Activities eg coffee mornings, discussion groups, or just one to one conversations - to share the life experiences and achievements of people who use their services.
Suggestions of how to do this are:
Ask people what they have good memories of. Have maps of the UK/the World/Brighton and Hove, so people can mark where they have lived.
Ask people what they have done in their lives, and achieved.
Have ‘now and then photos’ for people to match
Make a book/newsletter of residents/ service users with their photos and comments – for all in the service to see.
Make a frieze or collage or posters with achievements or pictures of what is important to people.
People using services may want to share what they feel was their biggest life achievement. Staff could maybe participate too!
"It might well be that the difference people make individually is a mere ripple on the surface of our care system, but each of those ripples added together create a wave, a social movement, and if this makes life better for some - then it has to be worthwhile." Sir Michael Parkinson, Dignity Champion
If you can’t celebrate on 1st February – do it on a different day! You can obviously also celebrate dignity in care Action Day in any way you want
Other suggestions are on the www.dignityincare.org.uk website
Brighton and Hove LINk are also keen to help support and Promote Dignity Action Day. It may be that volunteers may be available to assist, or to collate feed back into a central publicity board ‘Introducing the Care Home residents of Brighton and Hove’. To find out more contact Claire Stevens on 01273 810 234 or Claire@cvsectorforum.org.uk
The LINk is a Dignity Champion so we are pleased to support this work. We believe passionately that being treated with dignity is a basic human right, not an optional extra. More information on Dignity Champions can be found on the Department of Health's website.