Eastern Region Dignity Champions Network

Welcome to the Eastern Region's Dignity in Care Campaign.

Dear Dignity Champions,

In these times of change and uncertainty, it is easy to lose sight of the essentials and fundamentals of care, but I hope that together we can ensure everyone thinks about patients and service-users as people and assigns them the same dignity, courtesy and respect as you would want for yourself or loved ones.

What You Can Do Now

• Upload your dignity network onto the national Dignity in Care website. A dignity network can be a group/team/department who are actively tackling the dignity agenda or even just a coffee morning. It's just really useful to know about everything that's going on out there so others can link in.

http://www.dhcarenetworks.org.uk/dignityincare/dignityChampionNetworks/index.cfm?action=form

• Upload your good practice onto the national Dignity in Care website.
• Share tools and resources via the Digntiy in Care inbox DignityinCare@scie.org

What We Want To Achieve

• Together, we can:
• Help embed dignity into everyone's day job, so it's not just another thing 'to do'
• Showcase good practice
• Share resources and tools so we can learn from each other
• Build and maintain self-sustaining dignity networks, linking peopleof like minds together

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Claire Ogley

Dignity Programme Manager (East of England)

Enable East

E-mail: claire.ogley@easterndc.org.uk

Tel: 07533 025751

www.enableeast.org.uk

If you are a twitterer then you may want to follow the https://twitter.com/TowardsBest where the Dignity 10 Point Challenges will be promoted over the coming months.

LOCAL NETWORKS FOR DIGNITY CHAMPIONS TO JOIN

A key objective for dignity leads across the country has been to identify three existing local networks in each local authority area that dignity champions can join.

For the East of England, these will be your local LINk and locally-based user-led organisations. For more information, please click below.

• Eastern LINKs
  For the East of England, these will be your local LINk and locally-based user-led organisations.

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN THE REGION

Luton Borough Council - Dignity in Care workshop

Annette Jones & Carolyn Holmes from Luton Borough Council held a Dignity in Care training workshop on 8th February covering:

• Origin of the Dignity in Care campaign
• Dignity challenge
• What does Dignity mean to you?
• 10 aspects of dignity
• What promotes and threatens dignity?
• Safeguarding and dignity

Annette and Carolyn used an excellent PowerPoint slide pack, provided by Jo Taylor Palmer Interim Service manager and lead on the LBC Dignity Champions Steering group, for the day which they very generously are willing to share with others.

Dignity has been promoted by the LBC brokerage team, undergoing this 2 hour training with social workers from different LBC teams and discussing case examples from their own experience supplement the training. The brokerage team bear in mind issues regarding the dignity of service users, when requesting packages if care to be provided by private home care and residential providers.

Dignity action Learning Sets

We now have two dignity action learning sets up and running in the region.

The first is now in effect closed to new members. The second one is holding its second meeting on 13 May from 10:00 -14:00 in Thurrock and there may still be the opportunity to join this group. For more information contact marion.collict@eoe.nhs.uk. Venue is likely to rotate around the membership so don't be put off if you are a long way from Thurrock.

Carewatch Southend Dignity Week from 8th to 15th March 2010

Carewatch Southend ran a whole week on Dignity workshops, covering

• Dignity and respect
• Resources for inclusively
• Privacy and the relative network
• Dignified personal care
• Quality Assurance
• Managing the stress of caring
• The art of listening ... ... do you really listen

I was lucky enough to be invited to spend a day with them and to participate in four of the workshops. Jan Reed who masterminded and ran the week had developed some simple but effective role-plays and exercises that really highlighted the dignity challenges in delivery domiciliary care. The day managed to be both great fun and a fabulous learning experience. I certainly came away with an even greater respect for the job that paid carers do.

At the end of each mini-workshop participants were asked to write on a post-it note one thing they were personally going to do differently, in their work, from the theme of that workshop. These were all displayed on the walls of the training room and made inspiring reading - and Jan plans to capture these into their own Carewatch Dignity Charter. Participants were also encouraged to sign up - there and then - as dignity champions.

Dignity Action Day 25th February

It was good to see our bit of the map filling up with clusters of pledges from pamper days to celebration coffee mornings to Beverly Holberry's initiative at the Stowmarket Resource Centre to create a display of statements of what individuals who use the service and staff think are important, which have been collated from small groups over the last two weeks and which are now being displayed around the building as a reminder and an ongoing project.... and those are just a few of the exciting things that went on.

LINks Regional Networking Day - Tuesday 9th March 2010

Over 40 people - LINk members and local authority reps - came together from 6 different LINks organisations from across the regions.

I was pleased to be invited to talk to the group about the Dignity in Care campaign, supported by colleagues from Thurrock LINk how have been really active around the dignity theme. They focussed their Dignity Action Day on Michael Parkinson's phrase:

"..it might well be that the difference [dignity champions] make individually is a mere ripple on the surface of our care system, but each of those ripples added together creates a wave, a social movement, and if this makes life better for some - then it has to be worthwhile."

This provoked a good discussion about what, in practice, can any of us do when we come across situations where we need to challenge behaviours and practices that ignore patient dignity. It was good to see that about a quarter of those there are already dignity champions and hopefully the session encouraged some more to sign up.

East of England Carers Leadership Conference 19 March 2010

Representatives from health, social care and voluntary organisations committed to the Carers agenda will meet together on 19 March 2010 for what promises to be a stimulating day of talks and workshops.

For more information click below.

Some places are still available, if you would like to attend, please call Holly Daniels on 01206 287541 or email holly.daniels@easterndc.org.uk.

• East of England Carers Leadership Conference 19 March 2010
  Representatives from health, social care and voluntary organisations committed to the Carers agenda will meet together on 19 March 2010 for what promises to be a stimulating day of talks and workshops....

Dignity Matters conference in the Eastern Region, 3rd February

Over 120 social and care professional from across the East of England met up on 3rd February for a conference on the theme of the Dignity in Care Challenge.

For a full write-up of the event, plus copies of the presentations, please click see below.

• Dignity Matters conference in the Eastern Region, 3rd February
  The Dignity in Care Challenge event on 3 February 2010 opened with Amanda Reynolds, Deputy Director (Social Care & Partnerships, from Government Office for East of England) introducing the programme...

Thurrock Dignity Day 25^th February

Thurrock's Dignity Group invited relatives, friends and staff to an "open house" awareness session/coffee morning at Collins House, one of Thurrock Council's older people's home, ,

They facilitated discussion to raise awareness of dignity in care, inspire local people to take action in support of the campaign and share good practice and give impetus to positive innovation. It will be an opportunity to tell people more about the National Campaign and the ten principles, and for people to sign up as dignity champions there and then if they wish to.

CASE STUDIES

Please keep your case studies flowing in. Here are six new ones below:

• Eastern Case Study 1 - Primary care - calendar for older patients
  Nuffield Road Medical Centre is a large GP practice in Cambridge covering a growing population on the rapidly-expanding north side of the city. Practice manager, Greta Evans, recognised the need for...
• Eastern Case Study 2 - Support systems for family carers and care workers
  Phyllis is an 82 year old lady who lives in her own home, and is fiercely independent. Phyllis was diagnosed with vascular dementia about three years ago and her family members were getting worried about...
• Eastern Case Study 3 - Essex County Council
  Essex County Council (ECC) has embraced the Department of Health's Dignity in Care campaign in quite a novel way, inviting all employees, not just those involved in care services, to sign-up as Dignity...
• Eastern Case study 4 - Dignity and Respect - a case study from an acute medical ward
  Dignity and Respect Dignity and respect for another person are at their most vulnerable when that person is unable to afford you the same courtesy. This is common when people suffer form dementia...
• Eastern Case study 5 - A Dignity Charter
  Carewatch have invited all staff members to be involved in the development of their Dignity Charter. A week of workshops, each with a theme that relates directly to the Dignity Challenge, has been well...
• Eastern Case study 6 - About Me
  Carewatch have developed a document titled 'About Me'. It is introduced to the people that we visit in their own homes, as part of their initial assessment. 'About Me' is a written record of what really...