The Edith Ellen Foundation Kindness Charter

The Edith Ellen Foundation Kindness Charter in Care Homes: 

Code of Good Practice in Holistic Caring

The Edith Ellen Foundation believes a sound commitment to kindness should be the lifeblood of everyone involved in the provision of care. If that principle were to be enshrined within the culture of all care homes, then abuse and neglect could be prevented.

Born out of a critical need to seek fresh ideas, the Foundation seeks to bring consistency, clarity, true integration and improved holistic care across all the services they deliver, and with complete commitment to the people they look after. 

The provision of outstanding care should be the objective of every provider; the receipt of outstanding care should be the right of every individual who needs it. 

Care that stands out is the overall standard of dedication and commitment by all the management and staff to the promotion of kindness in nursing and care to all of their residents, particularly those lost in the fog of dementia, or suffering from complex health conditions.

This means that all staff should be well-trained in all aspects of the administration of care for which they are responsible and should be allowed time for continuing professional development courses once they are trained. 

All carers must be able to see the patient or resident as a whole individual; must have an understanding of their background and culture; their family relationships; their likes and dislikes, and should encourage and support independence and choice rather than rigid conformity which leads to isolation and fear. 

Carers must understand the importance of communication. This includes communication between staff, communications about those being cared for and, most importantly, conversation with patients and residents. Every activity should be performed with rather than to the person receiving care and must include kind, interested converse. 

Care which stands out, involves warmth, sincerity and kindliness. Residents are truly understood, counselled, valued and feel free to speak out without fear of bullying, intimidation and retribution, and are never inhibited, crushed and suppressed by their care.

Residents and patients must be kept fully and promptly informed; they must be consulted and encouraged to vary, shape and develop their own daily routine and range of care services. 

Residents should be consulted and encouraged to vary, shape, develop and plan special events. 

Good care happens when management and staff reliably recognise and use mealtimes as a valuable opportunity for introducing conversations that benefit the social interaction and wellbeing of all their people and where management and staff actively take the opportunity to sensitively socialise with residents during mealtimes, which encourages everyone to enjoy good food and company. 

Good care is where residents anticipate meals and mealtimes; want to eat; to join in with conversations; to feel relaxed and take their time because of the whole pleasing and comfortable experience, and where mealtimes never become just another fixed inflexible routine, and lends to vented frustrations, and with more than just food being wasted. 

Care where management and staff actively and sensitively encourage people to frequently drink and recognise that those who are at risk of dehydration are sufficiently monitored; where people are never left too long alone, without sufficient fluids. 

Management and staff should recognise and understand the importance of empathy, of therapies other than medication, and of effective timely pain management for those that suffer from complex health conditions, and particularly at the end of their life. 

All staff must understand that people’s fear, distress, isolation, and frustrations will follow if they at not able to express their feelings, concerns and their pain. Patients must be encouraged to voice their concerns; given emotional and spiritual as well as physical support and, at the end of their lives, have a dignified and peaceful death. 

The dignity of all those being cared for must be rigorously protected. This includes attention to their personal hygiene and to their dress. 

Patients should never be ignored to the extent that they lose their self-respect when they soil or wet themselves because their calls for help or attention are ignored. Such calls should always be answered promptly. 

Good care occurs where there is a sympathetic, sensitive and understanding comprehension of residents’ health conditions, learning difficulties or any other differential “stigma” that is placed on them, or associated with a name that they are given in society. 

Good care is where management and staff truly understand the value of and their responsibility for the protection, trust, confidentiality and security of the people in their care, and ensure that residents have access to real, confidential advocacy, with honesty and integrity in their individual care, and in the controls over their financial and other interests, (especially, if they have no immediate family that visit or to act on their behalf). 

Good care is demonstrated when it is that not only people who are highly regarded, but their personal information, space, memories, personal effects and possession are too. 

Management and staff must be fully informed about all aspects of dementia. Residents, regardless of the stages of their illness and complex health conditions, are known as a individuals and cherished by experienced skilled and trained nursing care, who are focused on resident’s needs for consistent support, recognition and familiarity, continuity and reassurance. 

Staff must try to understood and listen to what people with dementia are trying to say to them. 

Management and staff should be encouraged to apply the tools and aids of new and innovative alternative therapies, rather than rely on long-term medications, which might mask other underlying health problem. 

A demonstration of good care is when where what really stands out is that residents with dementia are still happy, confident enough and encouraged, to voice their own personal view, needs and ideas.

Care where residents, in all stages of their life, are nursed, cared for, and treated as precious human beings, and what truly shines through, are the warmth, sincerity and kindliness of resident’s surroundings, and management and staff who deliver excellent quality nursing skills, with complete respect, dignity, care, compassion and kindness, particularly at the end of their resident’s life. 

The Edith Ellen Foundation Kindness Charter https://t.co/8TOwEmyA5Y

— edithellen (@edithellen2013) September 18, 2016