I made a stand....

Hi Carla, I understand what your going through, it's happening in my work place aswel .... I also work in a nursing home as a care assistant. I became a dignity champion a few years back, and I try my hardest to put things into place, but when staff are making things hard for me when they don't listen and encourage me .. I'm glad that I'm not the only one feeling that way. You should of stuck it out until you found another job, and not give up to easily.

Well done! I have worked in a few care homes and am very disillusioned . The staff are great where I am now but completely overwhelmed with the volume of work and the manger just blames us for not being able to do an impossible job.
I really don't know the answer except to work for a charity like alzheimer's support or age uk. Trouble is it doesn't do anything to help all the residents of care homes. I thought dignity Champions would give me a way to push forward rights for clients, but seems to be just a talking shop.

I am stuck in a pattern of telling manager how I feel and then having to leave and get another job.
all the powers that be care about is filling in charts to pretend a good job is being done when there is only just time to meet physical needs and the emotional, social and psychological needs are completely neglected.
I really respect what you have done. I hope someone has some hope for our residents and people like us too.

I feel sorry for all of you - this seems to be a huge problem. At least that Panorama programme, drew some attention to Care Homes.

In theory the Care Quality Commission is supposed to be monitoring that care standards are okay, but in practice I tend to read about the failings of the CQC, and what I would call 'bullying cultures' where problems are swept under the carpet, instead of being addressed.

I have no idea what the solution to this one is - but I'm pretty sure that caring staff, are often in the pretty awful situation of finding their employer is not very 'caring': sorry I can't help !

I understand where people are coming from here, but people always seem to put the negative attitudes forward. When in reality the positives far out reach the negatives. It is the job of dignity champions to continue to fight for change in the system. Everyone has the right to dignity. Management are not always in a position to make changes, but if we all persevere then we can change the system.

Well said Paul. There are. always have been and always will be massive challenges out there for us all to face as we try our best to promote dignity for those who deserve it. Let us continue to listen to those who struglgle and offer our support but let us all celebrate what we want to see more of

Best Wishes

Richard

That is true talk Paul... But it's a shame that other people around give us a negative vibe. We as champions we have to stick together and get the support from each other to more forward and make a differents. Does anyone work in a care home, I would love to get and share ideas..

Hi I'm currently an activities coordinator and feel exactly the same and have been so close to leaving my job as I cannot stand by and watch some of the care sometimes, I love my job and over last 3 years have completely changed the activities and social interactions in the home and feel a huge responsibility to my residents to just keep fighting as much as I can for better dignity and have just signed up to be a champion hoping I can infuence some of it into the home as I really dont want to leave, so wish me luck!

I do wish you all the best. I respect you for it. Sometimes it is very difficult.
 

Marianna Eleven

That's fantastic. It helps me so much to hear someone making positive changes and it also helps so have my experience validated. Some people seem to just want to pretend that everything is ok and that is just not true.
At my home the carers are so overwhelmed. There is so much work that we often can't even get everyone washed and dressed before lunch. It makes us feel so bad that carers keep leaving and then we have loads of agency staff which makes things worse ( the agency staff are great but can't be expected to work alone).
Find I have to work part time to keep a smile on my face. We have 34 severely disabled people to help and a whole lot of domestic tasks too. The clients get hardly any activities input at all as that is concerntrated in the residential section of the home and we are honestly rushed off our feet.
Keep up the good work and don't leave.

I know many people that have made a stand and been fired from their job. It is horrible to watch. A care home I used to do work experience at had many problems with treating residents appropriately. I have done a lot of work expereince at different care homes in my area and I find the ones I thought were bad... Weren't necessarily the worst. Then I tried to go about complaining (they don't make it easy!!) and couldn't find out how to do it. Then I have to think the residents are at stake. If the care home shuts down... the residents may end up in a worse care home then they began with! And many people will lose jobs etc. It is very difficult. A very difficult situation to be in.

I work in a wonderful nursing home. One major difference to some care homes is our management team who if a complaint was made they would take it serious and there would be a "paper trail" of the complaint, what was done to rectify the situation and the final outcome.
Also our management are not just sat in the office they spend a lot of time with the residents in a group setting or one to one.
I was a carer then moved on to become a activities co-ordinator (same company) and the job I do now I get to spend a lot of time with all the residents as like the managers in a group or one to one.
I have a meeting every few days with management to let them know how things are going do we need to make any changes anywhere are there any issues to report and of course any good feedback.
As one of the dignity champion we also have regular meetings to discuss any problems and the things that are going well.
As I have read on here or seen on the telly sadly not every care home is the same and I feel for anyone in the difficult situations where management do not listen or worse do not care as Carla said.

Wow your nursing home sounds a bliss! If only they were all like that!

I agree Donna, I worked as an activity co-ordinator for 3 years and now I train and support the activity co-ordinators within the group I work for. Our company too deals with complains if any come in, in much the same way as yours Donna.

As for Dignity in the home, this has been accepted by managment and training for Dignity Champions has been established. This training will take place with a different focus for each month to highlight each of the chosen toics.

There will be a notice board in the home to display the monthly topics and also work books will be completed. I created a CD using the song "Hello" which has been written to raise awareness of Dignity in a care home setting, this has been distributed amount the staff and visitors to the home.

If we all spread a little bit of DIGNITY we will acheive our aims.

As a manager in care, it appalls me when I read stories like these... it is so sad. If I hear anything from my staff I act immediately, nothing is ever brushed under the carpet. I really hope you have found work now Carla, it sounds like you deserve to work in the care industry.

Making a stand unfortunately does so often leave care workers unemployed, even when they try to do everything diplomatically and in all the right ways. I and another Dignity Champion (a nurse of 30+years experience) have recently found ourselves in that situation due to whistleblowing in a care home in Pembrokeshire. In fact the nurse was the person who launched Dignity Action Day last year.

I do take Paul's point about hearing "negative" things and agree we need to celebrate the good stuff too. It is equally important though that we acknowledge, as so many people here are doing, that there is still a lot of basic care to get right before some residents get any dignity at all, so could I would like to let other Dignity Champions know about Compassion In Care and the campaign for "Edna's Law" (www.compassionincare.com).

If anyone here does need a safe place and support to discuss their concerns please feel free to contact a network of others who also believe passionately in dignity via the CiC website.

Hi all,
Surely if Carla or other staff are reporting problems and they are not being dealt with by by management then could the problem not be reported to social services or CQC, I appreciate what someone else has said that for the residents it could be like out of the frying pan into the fire

James