BIHR at Royal College of Nursing Human Rights Conference

On October 26, Jean Candler, BIHR's Head of Policy and Public Affairs addressed an audience of over 80 nurses and health professionals to stress the importance of adopting a human rights based approach to health and social care services.

Organised by the Royal College of Nursing, the ‘Human Rights Conference: The Nursing Leadership Dimension' event was designed to provide senior nurses and other relevant staff an opportunity to understand and interpret the Human Rights Act, which places a duty on all public service bodies to uphold and maintain the rights of their services users.

Jean gave examples of cases in which using a human rights approach has improved services for vulnerable individuals who had their rights breached whilst accessing healthcare services. One such case outlined the experiences of a woman who was strapped down in a wheelchair as a result of staff concerns that she would attempt to walk unaided and cause herself injury. In this case staff were clearly acting in the interest of the patient, yet were unaware how the patient's distress at being strapped into the wheelchair was a potential breach of her right not to be treated in a degrading way. A consultant who visited the ward explained that the woman's human rights were not being considered and staff were encouraged to support her mobility. In this case a human rights based approach from the onset would have allowed staff to see the situation through the eyes of the patient, and prevented any violation of the patients rights.

Jean stressed that human rights and the associated principles are interrelated and interdependent. For example, access to healthcare is very dependent on access to information, and education. If you cannot read and write, or are not an English speaker it will be much harder to access good healthcare. For example you may not be able to read prescription notes, medicine instructions or signs/posters informing you about latest health provision. Effort must be made to ensure those who cannot communicate fully in English are not discriminated against when providing healthcare. Similarly, poor health can prevent people participating in education, work or other opportunities.

Key rights in healthcare were noted by Jean as:

• Freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment - poor conditions, lack of regard to dignity, neglect or abusive treatment, excessive force
• Right to respect for family, private life, home - privacy, family visits, social participation, independent living
• Right to life - Do Not Resuscitate orders, access to life-saving treatment
• Right to liberty - informal detention of patients, excessive restraint

Ultimately a human rights approach minimises unnecessary interference, promotes dignity, equality, fairness, protects against universally poor treatment and provides staff with new inspiration on how to improve upon existing services.

To read more about BIHR's human rights training click here.