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Staff participants described the need to respect the residents as
individuals:
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Chapter 5 Findings
“That they are treated as individuals rather than a person in an
institution and while they’re elderly that doesn’t mean that we
forget about or that there’s no say and they’re not to be treated with
respect.”
(S11)
The observations revealed that the laundry trolley had shower gels and
hairbrushes that were used for all residents – they were not
individualised.
Another resident participant described how staff don’t always show
respect for her things:
“On the whole the staff are nice but there’s some of them they’re
careless or something. I don’t know what it is, you know….”
(R01) (Barthel 13)
One resident participant spoke about an undignified experience:
“Last night I asked to use the bottle and the nurse said ‘I looked
everywhere but can’t find one so you will just have to pass it in the
pad’ and that really annoyed me.”
(R07) (Barthel 8)
Some staff participants expressed that residents would be treated with more
dignity if staff were aware of who they were prior to their admission to
residential care:
“They weren’t always like this”
(H01)
Some staff participants felt that education may help staff to recognise the dignity
and privacy needs of residents:
“Maybe there’s something like in other situations, in other
workplaces maybe sometimes people need ongoing training or
reminders about things and maybe we would need to be reminded
every now and again, this is someone who needs to be respected.”
(H03)