The practical guide has been developed in consultation with palliative care specialists and aims to support those working in end of life care deliver care services that respect human rights.
The guide is relevant to all practitioners caring for people at the end of their lives, whether in a hospice, care home, hospital or in the community. It may also be useful for people accessing end of life care services and their friends, family and carers.
In addition to providing information about human rights in Plain English, the resource also offers practical guidance on navigating difficult decisions, with case studies and decision-making flowcharts.
Alongside the new resource, Sue Ryder are launching a training programme which will use established case law to facilitate discussion and provides a pragmatic way of putting theory in practice.
Sue Hogston, chief nurse at Sue Ryder, explains: “I believe it is going to have a big impact – I think concentrating on what is important to individuals and balancing this with a person’s human rights will assist in ensuring the cultural change required for good end of life care occurs.
“The aim of the training will be to increase knowledge, confidence and capacity for nursing, medical and care staff and others to be able to use the human rights approach to end of life care.
“Lack of confidence around delivering end of life care is a recurrent problem in many acute trusts and complaints regarding poor experience of end of life care continue to occur. We hope this new resource will assist in addressing this.”
The training for nurses and other health professionals is being delivered thanks to a grant from the Burdett Trust for Nursing and will be available in the new year.
In the meantime, you can download ‘End of life care and human rights: a practitioner’s guide’ from the website of the British Institute of Human Rights.
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