Mental health worker to fight for the elderly

9:00am Sunday 5th October 2008

Comments (3)   Have your say »

A MENTAL health worker has become a “dignity champion” in the fight for better treatment for older patients across Worcestershire.

Carole Dinshaw is backing the Government-led campaign to protect the rights of older people so they are treated with courtesy, respect and dignity while they receive healthcare.

Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis will be in Birmingham today to launch the Department of Health’s Dignity in Care campaign where he will encourage more people like Mrs Dinshaw to become champions.

Ms Dinshaw, the Locality Manager at Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, said: “We must be confident that we can address any compromise of dignity and show we are committed to getting this right.”

Across the mental health trust, which manages Newtown Hospital in Worcester, Ms Dinshaw has led a series of changes to safeguard the dignity of older patients.

They are transported, where necessary, by wheelchair, no longer by commode. Ms Dinshaw has changed the times older people have their meals at Redgrove Day Hospital in Bromsgrove so they did not feel anxious and afraid during busy lunchtimes.

Staff have also made an agreement that they will challenge each other when they hear or see something that may compromise a person’s dignity, such as a nurse moving a patient in a wheelchair without informing them this was going to happen, or staff talking about a patient in front of them, making assumptions about their understanding and right to choice.

Dignity in Care is a campaign to drive up care standards and encourage people to become Dignity Champions, to improve standards.

Dignity Champions include health and social care managers and frontline staff. They also include doctors, dieticians, porters, care workers in care homes, MPs, councillors, and members of local action groups.

People who use care services, their relatives and carers as well as members of the public are also becoming Dignity Champions.

The Government wants to double the number of dignity champions to more than 3,000 by the end of the year and has appointed TV chat show host Michael Parkinson as the first National Dignity Ambassador.

For further details or to sign up to become a Dignity Champion visit dignityincare.org.uk