How degrading is it if you have the ability and self awareness to be able to use the toilet and you are made to soil yourself in a nappy
Tommy reporting, I was asked today if I found care homes: enabling or disabling.
Especially in light of residents having to wear pads at night
I would find it abhorrent if I lived in a care home where Every resident had to wear pads at night especially if you didn’t need one
How degrading is it if you have the ability & self awareness to be able to use the toilet and you are made to wet/soil yourself in a nappy
This would be one of the quickest humiliating degrading ways I can think of to strip a persons dignity away & strip them of all their self worth
Dignity means being able to use the toilet & close the door while you still can
A Person that Has to use pads can still feel a loss of dignity even when they should not have those feelings
Putting pads on everyone just because it suits the night staff does not make it right, if a person is able to use the toilet let them
A healthy “sense of self” helps a PLWD to feel worthy of respect even if respect is not being given
PLWD still have their Human Rights these are not just about avoiding getting it wrong, they are there to make real improvements to people’s lives
Care homes have to adhere to the PANEL framework: Participation, Accountability, Non-discrimination, Empowerment, Legality.
Supporting personhood is a critical key in ensuring that a Person Living with dementia Who is a resident Feels empowered
In an ideal world care homes would have a representative from the residents attend team meetings as I feel everyone in home should be part of team
If society going to find dignity in dementia it’s going to have to confront its feelings of disgust & its failure to bestow dignity to PLWD
And people wonder why we have a fear and dread of being put in a care home
There are some really great care homes out there but there are far to many who are understaffed & it’s the residents who suffer because of it
End of Report
