The Life Changes Trust will distribute funding which aims to support new guidelines for care in Scotland
A new fund aims to ensure those with dementia are treated with dignity and respect.
Funding of £135,000 has been announced by the Life Changes Trust to ensure that the rights of people living with dementia in care homes are recognised and respected.
Care homes across Scotland will benefit from the funding, and will use it to demonstrate how they support the inclusion and participation of residents with dementia in a meaningful way, so that residents have a genuine say in their own day-to-day lives.
Last year, the Scottish Government published Scotland’s new Health and Social Care Standards. The guidelines state everyone in Scotland deserves to receive the care and support that is right for them, focusing on people rather than just ticking boxes. They aim to encourage health and social care providers to think about what really matters to people who receive services, and their experience of the care they receive.
Each of the funded projects is designed to show how the standards will work in practice, demonstrating how to treat residents with real respect and dignity.
Anna Buchanan, director of the Life Changes Trust dementia programme, said: “People who live in care homes have exactly the same rights as everyone else and we know that care homes want to make sure that all their residents feel at home and are treated with respect.
“This funding will support care homes to show how to do this well, and how to protect and promote the human rights of residents. It is our hope that these care homes will be useful exemplars for others who want to learn about how to implement practically the new human rights based Health and Social Care Standards.”
Anderson’s Care Home in Elgin has received funding to work with the Glasgow School of Art to explore the role of music in supporting a rights-based approach for people affected by dementia to tell their story, identify their needs and aspirations, and explore opportunities to widen their social interaction by developing a choir that extends to the wider community.
Bankhall Court in Glasgow has based its project on the belief that an active social life is key to helping people with dementia feel happy, and that everyone has the right to enjoy adventures. People with dementia will be encouraged to be creative and to take part in activities that help them realise their current potential and continue to thrive in later life.
Dr Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care said: “While there are undoubted challenges of resourcing the sector and recruiting workers this is also a time when the human rights of residents, workers and families are increasingly being recognised as lying at the heart of all care.
“Dementia can be a frightening condition, with loss at its heart - loss of identity, loss of confidence, loss of relationships - and it can be all too easy for an individual to lose their sense of being in control, of being able to make choices, of exercising their own human rights. The Making Rights Real project is about turning that on its head. It’s about helping staff in care homes, families and individuals, recognise the role that upholding and advancing human rights can play in supporting and caring for people at very vulnerable points in their lives.”
