Fostering Dignity and Respect: Ethical Concepts and Strategies

This report delves into the ethical concepts encountered in a case study, focusing on responsibilities, freedom, respect, and rights within a caregiving context. It emphasizes the significance of effective communication, interpersonal skills, and individual learning values in enhancing dignity and respect for individuals receiving care. The analysis covers ethical principles such as beneficence, autonomy, non-maleficence, and distributive justice, highlighting instances where these principles are upheld or violated. Strategies to enhance respect and dignity, including involving individuals in decision-making, respecting personal space, and promoting social engagement, are discussed. The report also underscores the importance of truthfulness and honesty in communication to deliver person-centered, high-quality care, ultimately aiming to foster a positive and respectful care environment.

FOSTERING DIGNITY AND
RESPECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Ethical concepts and the strategies-.............................................................................................3
Maintaining Effective communication and using interpersonal skills for best care-...................7
Reflective account how the case study has helped in self-development, dignity and respect-....8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Ethics is the body of well-founded standards of rights and wrong what the people ought
to do. It is generally in the terms of obligations, rights, benefits to the society. Working ethical
means following the law requires. It is the standards of behaviour which the society has to
accept. This report will discuss the ethical concepts which is faced in the given case study such
as responsibilities, freedom, respect as well as rights and the use of the power in care. Further, it
will also discuss the effective communication and skills and the values of individual learning.
Along with this it will also discuss the strategies to enhance the dignity and respect for the
people.
MAIN BODY
Ethical concepts and the strategies-
Ethics is basically the study of morality and ethics is also known as Moral philosophy.
This enables an individual to understand the philosophies which guides to determine the rights
and wrongs (Dunn and Brooks, 2020). Ethics can also be defined as the knowing the difference
between what have to do and what is right to do. The sources from which the ethics can be arisen
such as religion, law, society, knowledge as well as time. Being unethical has much negative
impacts such as loss of trust, corruption, crimes and many more. The fundamental principles of
ethics are-
Beneficence: This principle states that the duty should always be acted in the best interests of the
patient or client. The care taker of the young woman in the case study violated this principle as
they did not act with the interests of her as she wanted that the carers must arrives at 10 p.m. But
despite this they were coming at 7 p.m. (Rendtorff, 2020).
Autonomy- This principle states that they should do their duty with the best interests of the
patients or clients (Goldstein and et.al. 2018.). The duty involves respect for confidentiality and
privacy. This ethical principle was also violated by the care takers of young woman as they were
not respecting the interests of her and performing duty according to their interest.
Non-maleficence- This principle states that they should not harm patients and protect them from
the harm which includes patient should have knowledge about the reality of the approach to
death, destroying their hope, stop doing treatments of the patients when their benefits exceeds the

burden of the patients. This principle was not violated because this was not practised by the care
taker.
Distributive justice- These principles states that every individual in the society has equal moral
worth and should be treated fairly by the staff (Contreras, Hoffmann, and Slocum, 2021). The
young woman has faced this issue as this was not stated in the case study. This principle was not
violated by the care takers of the woman.
In this case study, the carers are not taking care of the freedom of the young woman as she wants
to go bed at 10 p.m. But they are forcefully coming at 7 p.m. And making her go to bed. This
shows that carers are following the ethical practices in their responsibilities. Being free means to
ability to live according to the moral standards. Moral freedom means that an individual can
determine what is morally good. The carers must ensure this ethical practice to follow while
performing the duty (Allen, 2020).
The term right can be defined as the justified claims that an individual can make upon any other
individual or the society (Liao, 2019). Rights are the social, legal as well as the ethical principles
of freedom that is rights are the rules stating what is allowed to an individual according to the
legal systems or the ethical theory. In this case study, the young woman has complaint much
about the timing issue as the carers arrives early for making her sleep despite this they are not
listening to the problem which is showing that they are not working according to the ethical
framework. The young woman has to sleep early because of carers as she has her right of
deciding when to sleep.
Ethical responsibility is the ability to follow according to the multiple principles as well as to the
standards (Dubinsky, 2022). In this case study, the young woman wants that carer must come at
10 p.m. to make her sleep but instead of many complainants they are not listening to her which
states that carers are not following the ethical responsibilities. Being respectful, showing concern
of well-being to others are the key ethical responsibility which must be followed by the carers
while taking care of the young woman by this she will feel satisfied.
Respect is the most significant ethics for every human being that must be followed in the
everyday life by respecting the dignity of every person and it very important as well. In this case
study, young woman as not respected by the carers as that was shown when she has complaint
many times to the people, but they didn't obey the young woman and continued to came at the

same time that is 7 p.m. They were not practising the ethical practices which is very important
while offering the services to the people.
The carers must ensure practising the ethics while providing services to the young woman. IT is
very important to follow them, some importance of the ethical practices are-
Improves the quality of services- Providing good quality of the services to the customers is
very important for retaining as well as maintaining the trust between the service provider and the
customer (Sagha Zadeh and et.al. 2018). Carers were not providing good services to the young
woman as she wants the carers to come at 10 p.m. But they arrive at 7 p.m. Which will not
satisfied the young woman as well as the carers are also losing the trust from the young woman.
Creates positive relationship- The relationship between the service provider and the customers
must always be positive which will lead to satisfaction of the customer. To maintain good
relations between the customers and the service provider than they must ensure respecting the
customers and providing them the good quality services to them (Farhud, 2019). Young woman
was not receiving the services what she wants and the carers were also not respecting the woman
which was observed that in spite of the complaint of the young woman they were not coming on
the time.
Listen to the customers- Practising ethics involves listening to the customers for their needs and
wants. This will help the service providers in providing them effective services after
understanding the needs of the customers. The carers of the young woman were not following
the ethical practices, so they were not able to understand the needs of the woman as she wants
the carers to come at her place at 10 p.m. And many times when she told them to come late they
not even listened to her so it is very important for the carers to understand the need of ethics in
while providing services.
Strategies to enhance respect and dignity in care of young woman-
Every human being is desired for respect and dignity that is it doesn't matter if the person is
disabled or able. Dignity helps the individual to be valued for whom the individual is and how
they are living their life. It is very important to respect and take care of the dignity while
providing services to the customers because it supports the self-respect of the individual as well
as it will not stop them to live comfortable and enjoy the life (Gallagher, 2020). Treating other
people with respect and dignity means treating them how would we want to be treated like.

Several strategies can be used by the staff to support respect and dignity for the young woman
such as-
Choose them their own clothing- Self expression is very important for every human beings as
denying from doing this will lead to harming the dignity of the customer. As young woman is
suffering from cerebral palsy, and she cannot wear dress by herself so the carers must ensure that
the dress they are selecting for her must be selected by herself this will help them to support the
dignity of the young woman.
Involving them in taking decisions for their care- It is very important to involve and engage
the customers as by not involving they will feel disconnected as well as unvalued. The people
who are involved feel respected when their opinion are taken. The decisions can be like about the
medications, meal planning and many more related to their health and care. Care takers of the
young woman must involve and engage her in making the decisions. They must respect the needs
of her as young woman wants that carers must come at her place at 10 p.m. For making her sleep
by this the woman is not feeling respected. So the staff must use this strategy to support the
dignity and respect of the young woman.
Addressing the customer appropriately- It is very important to assured about how the
customer is addressed by the staff as addressing by different names and not in a polite manner
may feel disrespect to the customer. To ensure about the respect and dignity of the young
woman, the care takers must address her in appropriate way so that she feel respected by them.
Providing them the personal space- It is very significant to respect the personal space of the
customers. This will create belongingness between the care takers and the customers as well as
they will feel comfortable. Asking them for and each everything related to them will make
customers feel respected and their dignity will be supported. Young woman should be respected
by asking them everything about their belongings in the house.
Involving in social activities- The staff must ensure that the customers must be involved in the
social activities which help them to enjoy their life and it will create the sense of satisfaction in
the customer. Without the social life, the customers can harm the dignity as they will not feel
recognized. The care taker of the young woman must ensure about involving them in some social
activity which will help them to improve the quality of the life.
Engaging the customers- It is very important for the staff to interact with the customers which
will help them to feel fresh and good. As young woman is suffering from the cerebral palsy it

may happen that she is frustrated so interacting with them may feel fresh and good for her. The
care taker must actively listen to her and make her feel that they matter to the staff as this will
create self-worth of the customer.
Speaking respectfully- The staff must talk in an polite manner to the customers from which they
will feel more respected by the staff. They must practice patience and empathy towards the
customers. Treating them with kindness and courtesy will create respect and dignity of the
customers. The young woman is suffering from such diseases that every work of her is
performed by the care takers so it is very important for them to treat her in a very polite way and
with patience by which she will also feel respected by them.
Maintaining Effective communication and using interpersonal skills for best care-
Effective communication is defined as the skills to convey the to one another in an
effective and efficient manner. Communication plays a vital role in health care of an individual.
There are 7 c's of effective communication such as clarity, correctness, conciseness, courtesy,
concreteness, consideration and completeness. Having effective communication skills helps in
delivering the person-centred and high-quality care. Truthfulness and honesty are the key
outcomes of the effective communication (Kee and et.al. 2018).
Maintaining effective communication with the patients at home for providing better services to
them is very important. They feel valued, cared by the good or effective communication. It
improves the care services along with this also creates better working environment for the carers.
This helps the patients to feel comfortable, feel heard, ease their fears and allows them to
disclose the relevant information they would like to share with the care takers. It is very
important to have good communication skills with the compassion, dignity and respect. Effective
communication will help the patients by getting recover early as possible as interacting with the
patients will help them to feel fresh and relaxed (O’KANE, 2019).
Staff can maintain the effective communication for taking good care are-
Maintaining good relations- The customers suffering from diseases require much effective
health care services which can be provided by the care takers. The care takers who can
communicate effectively helps them to maintain good relations with the patients as well as
misunderstandings and miscommunications can be avoided. Care takers using their interpersonal
skills of dignity and respect, compassion will create the confidence in the patients and trusts for

the care taker. In the given case study, young woman was not feeling respected and dignity
because of ineffective communication as they were not listening to her.
Using active listening skills- When the patient communicate with the staff it is very important to
listen actively and make them feel that their opinions matter. This can be done by nodding the
head which will encourage them to talk more, using facial expression so that they feel
comfortable this communication will lead to respectful feeling for the customers (ZAHOOR).
Giving them time- Giving the customers enough time and communicating with them so that
they will feel sympathetic as well respectful. Talking with them will help the patients to get
comfortable with the care takers.
Speaking in simple language- This will help in maintaining effective communication with the
patients. Using simple languages with the patients will help them in easy and effective
communication. The interpersonal skills of the staff such as dignity, respect and compassion will
use this in communicating with the patients will create the sense of respect and dignity for the
patients.
Being humble- Communicating with the patients in humble manner leads to effective
communication as well as they also feel respected and sympathetic. It is very important for the
staff to maintain good relations with their patients as they are in need of it. Effective
communication is very important for better understanding of the patients.
Reflective account how the case study has helped in self-development, dignity and respect-
Once a time a man said that the problem came to the way of those who are strong and
have courage to fight - persons like Martha Jayakesra means the disabled person are the very
courageous, strongest and wisest people. We must not forget that some of the most successful
persons are also disable (Cooper . 2018).
This case study have made me learn some ethics principles that everyone has to follow like
beneficence, it has made me learn that duty should be performed in well-disciplined manner and
have to be performed on time,Autonomy have taught me that you should respect your work and
it's privacy also you have to complete your duty with giving the best of us in everything. This
case study has made me realise that respecting everyone is so necessary irrespective of what they
are we have to respect everyone respecting should include addressing the elder respectfully and
speaking to everyone respectfully (Matiti, 2020.).

some times people don't have a good attitude towards the disabled peoples, they usually treat
them as they are the useless persons on the planet, these peoples make them feel like they are
helpless, incapable and unfortunate they don't get respect, dignity because of their disability but
the truth is that the persons with disability are equal to the normal or may be stronger and
effective than a normal man( Umbreen.2019.).
Most importantly this study has made me learn the effective communication skills, which is very
important in the self development both the effective communication and self development are
two phases of one coin, effective communication is the key to impress anyone and how useful
this skill is whenever we talk to someone, this is very useful skill and this case have made me
know that how useful it is. This is the skill to convey the messages to one another in an effective
and efficient way. There are 7c's of effective communication these are – clarity, correctiveness,
conciseness, courtesy, concreteness, consideration and completeness, while communicating to
anyone, one should take care of all these C's . truthfulness, honesty and dignity comes out as the
outcome of the effective communication skills.
when I was reading the case study it has also made me emotional and I have personally realized
that we the normal persons are so lucky that god has blessed us with no difficulties so this has to
be our primary duty to help those who need our help , we have to stop ignoring or making them
feel different despite this if we see them struggling in something we have to help them and when
we help someone who is needy have some sort of difficulties we personally feel more happy than
the happiness we got from getting money.
This case study has increased my respect and dignity for the disabled person by knowing that
how strong and hard-working they are also This study is so helpful for me when I see it in terms
of self learning.

CONCLUSION
This report has discussed the ethical concept as well as the fundamental ethical principles which
must be followed by staff while taking care of the patients which are such as beneficence, non-
maleficence and many more. Further, it will also discuss how rights, freedom, responsibilities are
violated by the care takers as well as the strategies to enhance the dignity and respect of the
patients by the staff. Later on it has discussed how the staff should maintain effective
communication with using their interpersonal skills such as dignity, respect and compassion for
the patients which is helps in early recovery of the patients by the care takers.

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