Where are the Dignity Champions?

I became a Dignity Champion about a year ago and recently attended a meeting at the Department of Health about their Dignity in Care Campaign. Among the 15 or so who attended there was only one other person, other than myself, who did not actually work in a care environment.

I must say they were all articulate and passionate about trying to make their care environment more dignified - but I couldn't help thinking, where are the members of the public?

Surely it is the public who wants to safeguard the dignity of their relatives when they are in a residential or nursing home? It is also the public who often witnesses undignified or unacceptable behaviour by health care workers.

Being treated with dignity is in my view a basic human right and never more so than when the individual concerned is vulnerable. So why aren't the public getting involved in the Dignity Campaign?

I think the answer to that is quite simple - they don't know about it!

So I am on a mission to inform members of the public that they can become dignity champions and help to influence how their relatives are treated within care homes and any other care environment. I have even got my mum and dad involved as they are the reason I feel so passionately about this - check out http://www.best-care-home.co.uk/dignity.php if you would like to meet mum and dad and see how I am trying to encourage people to become Dignity Champions. Are you one?