18.06.12
Elderly care needs a major cultural shift
A “major cultural shift” is necessary to improve quality of care for the elderly, the final report by a commission into dignity suggests.
The Commission on Improving Dignity in Care for Older People has made a number of recommendations to tackle the underlying causes of poor care.
These include the Government working to ensure every person receiving care is protected by human rights legislation, not just those whose care home place is arranged by their local authority.
Feedback from older people and their carers should also be introduced to improve practice. The NHS should use new NICE quality standards for patient experience in adult services to provide a consistent approach, they suggest.
A copy of the final report, Delivering Dignity, is being sent to every NHS and care home chief executive inEngland, and a joint action plan will be published later this year to give practical support to implement necessary changes.
The commission was set up by the NHS Confederation, Age UK and the Local Government Association.
A joint foreword to the report from the Commission co-chairs reads: “Delivering dignity will mean changing the way we design, pay for, deliver and monitor care services as the numbers of older people in care continues to grow.
“Alongside the consistent application of good practice and the rooting out of poor care, we need a major cultural shift in the way the system thinks about dignity, to ensure care is person-centred and not task-focused.
“This will require empowered leadership on the ward and in the care home, as well as a lead from boards and senior managers. It will also mean changing the way we recruit and develop staff working with older people.
“We have to work with older people to shape services around their needs, and listen to patients and residents and their families, carers and advocates so we learn from their feedback and continually improve dignity in care.”
The report can be viewed here: www.nhsconfed.org/Publications/Documents/Delivering_Dignity_final_report150612.pdf
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