Emphasising Humanity

What could emphasising humanity mean not only for 'patients' but staff working within health and social care?

Our health and social care systems are full of those who care deeply about the people with whom they work – both their colleagues and the people for whom they provide care and support. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, we see interactions and services which are designed to respect the rights and needs of our fellow humans. This design delivers time and time again the kind of care that supports and helps the most vulnerable in our communities meet their potential and flourish with love and compassion.

We also know that the experiences of many people, both working in the health and social care systems and those experiencing the services of these systems, is not always a fulfilling one. People are often left feeling dehumanised and devalued, on the receiving end of transactional processes which fail to recognise and respect their needs as human, sentient beings.

We cannot talk about emphasising humanity in health and social care systems without recognising that this must include everybody within that system – staff and patients are not separate entities when it comes to considering the basic needs which we all have for relationships that respect our rights and which are based on compassion and kindness.

In Reinventing Organisations, Frederic Laloux states that “Extraordinary things begin to happen when we dare to bring all of who we are to work.” He also recognises that “In a forest, there is no master tree that plans and dictates change when rain fails to fall or when the spring comes early. The whole ecosystem reacts creatively, in the moment.”

Here he recognises what we know to be important – that we respect and honour our individuality and diversity and that as individuals we interact with others in a way that enables each and everyone of us to develop and to adapt in ways that meet changing needs and contexts.

It was on many of Laloux’s principles that Jos de Blok, the founder of Buurtzorg, the Dutch community based nursing service, established his new organisation on in 2006. This was in order to address the problems which he identified within a fragmented and transactional health and social care system in Holland – a system which met neither the needs of the patients nor the staff.

‘Humanity beyond bureaucracy’ is the mantra of all the nurses who work within the self organised teams in Buurtzorg. They work in teams of no more than 12 people, where respect and dignity are at the heart of their approach towards each other and towards the communities with whom they work. 10,000 frontline staff are supported by an organisation of 45 backroom staff. And there is no hierarchy. Decisions are made and enacted by teams, based on the needs of their patients and staff.

System design is important in enabling this. I have been fortunate enough to spend time with one of these teams in Rotterdam and know only that the positive visceral and emotive which I have experienced told me that emphasising humanity in everything that we do is a core essential of success in health and social care systems.

There is an urgency to redesign our health and social care systems in Scotland. As we advance with this redesign we must recognise both the individual and the system components that enable human flourishing. We can now make unprecedented decisions which challenge existing organisational paradigms and halt the perpetuation of poor experiences. We just need to be truly human and brave.

You can follow Pat on Twitter by visiting @PatTyrrell1

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