I Am Human: New campaign asks patients and visitors to pause and reflect
02 September 2026
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has launched a new campaign showing the lasting impact that abuse, aggression and intimidation can have on NHS staff. I Am Human shares the real experiences of colleagues from across the Trust and asks patients and visitors to pause, reflect and remember the person behind the uniform.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has launched a new campaign showing the lasting impact that abuse, aggression and intimidation can have on NHS staff.
I Am Human shares the real experiences of colleagues from across the Trust and asks patients and visitors to pause, reflect and remember the person behind the uniform.
The campaign features staff including Kate, Michael, Salwa and Emily, whose stories show how an upsetting or aggressive interaction at work can stay with someone long after the immediate incident has ended.
Across our emergency departments, 473 incidents of assault, abuse and aggression were reported in 2025, three times the number reported in 2018. The largest and fastest-growing problem is verbal abuse and other aggressive behaviour, which accounted for nearly three-quarters of reported aggression incidents in A&E last year.
Reaching people before frustration becomes abuse
I Am Human focuses on the point where behaviour can still change.
Rather than relying only on traditional warning or zero-tolerance messaging, the campaign asks people to consider how their words and actions can affect the member of staff in front of them.
By highlighting the shared humanity between staff, patients and visitors, the campaign encourages people to pause and reflect on what we have in common and how we treat one another.
The aim is to interrupt the moment frustration begins to escalate, help defuse tension and encourage a different response before it becomes abuse. In doing so, the campaign promotes mutual respect and helps reduce the risk of incidents escalating further.
The stories behind the campaign
The campaign was developed around a simple question: What does abuse actually do to the person receiving it?
Each image places a member of staff away from the hospital, in an ordinary moment outside work. The scenes reflect how the effect of an incident can continue after a shift has ended.
QR codes on the campaign materials take patients and visitors directly to audio recordings where the staff involved describe their experiences in their own words.
Tested with patients and visitors
Before launch, the campaign was shown without explanation or prompting to randomly approached patients and visitors in emergency department and outpatient waiting areas at Chelsea and Westminster and West Middlesex.
Nine out of 10 understood the intended message immediately.
Participants described the campaign as striking, powerful, humanising and different from conventional hospital messaging. They also felt it could encourage people to pause and think about their behaviour.
What you will see
I Am Human is now appearing on digital screens across our hospitals, with posters in areas where digital screens are not available.
The dedicated campaign page brings together all four stories and audio recordings.
Please treat our staff with kindness and respect.