We celebrate Dignity Action Day by looking at how not to be a carer

Home news

Jan 19, 2012

National Dignity Action Day (DAD) celebrates all that’s best in care so, On Wednesday 1^st February, we have decided to prove how important good care is by letting our staff experience the type of bad care we would never allow.

Manager Gráinne Wokes said: “There is an idea that in a nursing home choice is taken away - this is not the case. Every day, we work with our residents to give them choices in everything they do. This helps residents to maintain the sense of independence and individuality that is at the heart of dignity.

“To mark DAD, we have decided to take an alternative approach. Because care and dignity go hand in hand here, we have decided to show staff what the opposite would look like.”

Staff will be blindfolded and left in the dining room, without contact, wheeled around the building and not told where they are going and, in some cases, staff members will be fed without being told what they are being given. 

“We hope that by experiencing bad care we can remind ourselves of how important our work is: helping to create and maintain dignity and respect, as well as helping us develop greater empathy and understanding for those who may have experienced poor care in the past.”

Our home in Goldalming provides specialist nursing care for frail, older people, some of whom have Alzheimer’s disease.