Hosted by WeNurses using #WeNurses

This chat is guest hosted by @SueMHogston

Our human rights are the basic rights and freedoms we have because we are human. They provide a set of minimum standards, outlined in law for how the government should treat us as individuals. Our human rights are protected through the Human Rights Act (HRA), which makes the rights written in the European Convention on Human Rights part of UK law.

The HRA guarantees these minimum standards in two key ways. Firstly it places a duty on public officials (including health services) to uphold these standards by respecting our human rights in everything they do. Secondly human rights law provides a foundation for all other law, including health and social care law.

Human rights will underpin many of the situations practitioners caring for people at the end of their lives may come across in their day to day work. The Human Rights Act can be a practical tool, providing a framework to help make (often difficult) decisions.

Sue Ryder has worked with the BIHRs to produce a guide on EOL and Human rights

https://www.bihr.org.uk/eolchumanrights

http://www.sueryder.org/~/media/files/how%20we%20help/campaigns/endoflifecarewebversionfordownload.pdf

Human rights are not ‘new’ or ‘extra’ in the field of end of life care. Human rights are at the heart of much of the law,policy and practice, and have supported practitioners to provide person-centred care. Being able to identify the human rights involved and the impact a particular decision or action will have on a person’s human rights will help deliver good quality care that is person centred, accountable, and balances the needs of individuals against the needs of others and the wider community.

With this in mind, the aim of the resource is to:

Improve practice and increase dignity and respect within health and care settings, by empowering  care workers to deliver a human rights based approach to end of life care.

The key rights which are most likely to be relevant to end of life care are:

• Right to Life (Article 2)
• The Right to be Free from Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (Article 3)
• Right to Liberty (Article 5)
• Right to Respect for Private and Family Life, Home and Correspondence (Article 8)
• The Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion (Article 9)
• The right to enjoy these human rights without discrimination (Article 14)

The guide provides information about these key rights, including how practitioners  might encounter them in their  day to day work, including  legal duties and examples of the rights in practice. It is designed to allow practitioners to ‘dip in and out’, rather than having to read the guide cover-to-cover.

This #WeNurses discussion aims to explore some of the following areas:

• Do you understand the basic principles of the Human Rights Act?
• Are you confident to initiate conversations in the workplace with reference to human rights?
• Are you an advocate for human rights in the delivery of high quality end of life care?
• Do you feel confident challenging practice when you think a breach of human rights has occurred?
• Do you recognise the benefits of human rights when balancing decision making?
• Do you recognise how knowledge of Human rights and enhance delivery of person centred care plans and therefore demonstrate to CQC evidence of personalised care?

About our Guest Host

Sue Hogston is the Chief Nurse for Sue Ryder (national neurological and palliative care charity) and the project sponsor for an exciting three education programme starting in 2017 paid for by the Burdett Trust for Nursing. Sue has worked with the British Institute of Human rights on the production of a guide outlining some of the challenges faced by practitioners in balancing an individuals and families rights and choices, out lining a human rights approach to end of life/palliative care.  Sue Ryder will be delivering an ambitious three year education and training programme which will be free for practitioners to attend on this subject 2017-2020