You’re Only Old Once!

Dignity is a hard concept to master, especially with care of older people, the key demographic of adult medicine. Clinicians sometimes confound undignified practice and clinical settings with a loss of dignity in the person. Equally, the lay public may describe those with illnesses such as dementia as having “lost their dignity.”

Yet the intrinsic dignity of humans is inviolable, no matter the illness or disability: it is our unthinking attitudes and practice that combine to add indignities to our exchanges with patients. These include failure to provide adequately tailored environments, personalised approaches to care, and a true engagement that compensates for asymmetry of …