Campaigns & issues

Priority should be given to implementing the core standards on food and help with eating as set out by the Department
of Health in 2004.

There must be a commitment from the top down to achieve this; with managers enabling their staff to meet these standards.

Beverly Malone, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, commenting on the key contribution of nurses in the care of older people stated:

“Nurses know how important it is for patients to feel they are being treated with respect. Older people especially need to experience care which supports their dignity and reassures them that their opinions and wishes are being responded to.”

We believe, and older people tell us, that food and help with eating are important elements in maintaining dignity.

Indeed, two examples given by older people to the Department of Health to illustrate when their dignity was not respected were:

• being provided with bibs intended for babies rather than a napkin whilst being helped to eat
• having to eat with their fingers rather than being helped to eat with a knife and fork

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