Dignity, it’s something that you may not give much thought to.
If you can get out of bed every morning, get washed and dressed, eat enough food to fill you up and switch the television channel if you need to, there’s probably not much cause for you to think about what a life without dignity would be like.
But, imagine if you couldn’t do any of those things for yourself and you had to rely on someone else to do them for you.
Would your dignity be important then?
Here at the Beacon Centre we think so, that’s why we’ve signed up to become Dignity Champions and will be marking Dignity Action Day.
Because we want people to know, if they come to the Beacon Centre, we’ll maintain their dignity.
Across the UK more than two million health and social care staff work around the clock to provide support and care for those in need.
And so far more than 83,000 people have signed up to support the campaign by becoming a dignity champion and pledge to respect people’s dignity
We’ve been inspired to get behind the campaign by a Beacon Centre trustee Jan Burns. MBE [awarded for her services to dignity for all]
Jan, from Great Wyrley, has been involved with the national dignity champions campaign, which encourages people to pledge to treat others with dignity, since its inception in 2008.
She was elected as chairman in 2011 when the National Dignity Council was formed and serves as a passionate campaigner for the cause.
Dignity Action day gives everyone the opportunity to promote the campaign by raising awareness of people’s right to access dignity. This is defined by Jan as kindness, compassion and respect. Many events are being held across the country and as ever it promised to be a truly memorable day for people receiving health/care.
Beacon believe that people should always be: treated, as individuals, given choice and control and feel that they are valued.
We’ll be running events to mark Dignity Action Day on February 1st but for us and the campaign, every day should be dignity action day. As the National Dignity Council say Dignity is everybody’s business.
From the small things such as reading the newspaper for someone, offering assistance to someone in need or making sure a family member isn’t missing out on anything they would love to do to signing up your own organisation if you work in the care industry, there’s plenty you can do.
In the words of Joan Bakewell who supports the campaign “Dignity Action Day highlights a more respectful way of behaving towards vulnerable people. The very old and the very young clearly need our respect, but it wouldn’t do any harm to spread the dignity message across the population then we can all benefit.”
Anybody can support dignity action day to find out more log onto www.dignityincare.org.uk become an active dignity champion.
What does dignity mean to you?
