Chat show host says dignity should be at heart of care services
Posted: 20 May 2008
By Mithran Samuel
Michael Parkinson was today unveiled as the figurehead for the government's campaign to ensure older people are treated with dignity by health and social care services.
The chat show host, who has been appointed as national dignity ambassador, helped Ivan Lewis launch a tour today to raise the profile of the care services minister's dignity in care campaign, which will run until November and cover every English region.
Parkinson said he hoped to use his role to "ensure the issue of dignity moves to the heart of all NHS and care services".
Dignity test for services
Lewis said: "I want the NHS and social care services to apply a simple test - if it wouldn't be good enough for my mum and dad why should it be good enough for someone else's?"
Welcome from sector
Today's announcements were welcomed by older people's charities.
Counsel and Care chief executive Stephen Burke (right) welcomed today's announcements. He said: "Many older people are still enduring intimate personal care on mixed-sex wards and are rushed home from hospital without appropriate planning. And we constantly hear of older couples who are given no option but to face the pain of separation from a spouse when they have to go into a care home."
Action on Elder Abuse chief executive Gary FitzGerald said: "We have seen too many situations where very old and very frail people, who have lived together for decades, have been parted in the final years of their lives. This is plain wrong.”
SOURCE: CommunityCareCo
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