Equality and diversity rights in a social care setting

by crissyd (student)

Christine chuku- Unit 2: Equality, Diversity and Rights in Health and Social Care-

Rosemary Toussaint-Giraud

Unit 2: Equality, Diversity and

Rights in Health and Social Care

Rosemary Toussaint-Giraud

The importance of equality, diversity and rights in Health and Social Care is that people should have equal opportunities. There are different groups of in society and these people will need Health and Social care services, therefore equality, diversity and rights are important in the delivery of care.

Equality, diversity and rights also have structures and policies that help prevent discrimination and encourage the rights of service users.

P1: Recognised terminology to explain the importance of promoting equality, recognising diversity and respecting rights in health and social care setting.

The elderly at Peacehaven House should have equal opportunity and have the same rights and should be free from discrimination no matter the race, disability or culture.

Equality- Peacehaven house promote equality by letting people from different religions, culture or ethnic backgrounds have equal access to the residential home and treating them with respect. Doing this will reassure residents that their getting good equal health care and this can be seen as clients treated with respect and dignity.

Rights- Peacehaven house foster peoples rights by making sure that their clients have all information about the rights which apply to them and the service their using.

Care workers who work for Peacehaven need to have knowledge of how a client can use their rights and assist clients in making sure that they exercise rights under legislations, charters and guidelines. All this will ensure that clients are aware of complaints and procedures.

Values- Peacehaven House promote peoples values by being aware of differences in cultural, spiritual and moral values. Care workers and clients may have different values; therefore it is important for care workers to be caring, compassionate and respectful to differences in beliefs, feelings and attitudes. Care workers also have to be aware of own beliefs and make sure they avoid imposing their values on clients.

Prejudice- for the care worker to put aside own prejudice or change their own beliefs, they will need to think about their attitudes and how it will affect carer and client relationships. There are support groups and training available and this will give carers the opportunity to evaluate their beliefs and attitudes towards an ethnic minority.

Stereotyping and labelling- stereotyping is when a person applies their own prejudices and beliefs that all members of a group are the same. Stereotyping in a health and social care setting can lead to discrimination.

Care workers may stereotype because of lack of knowledge about social groups, other people’s culture and life styles.

Care workers may discriminate because of clients:

Making a generalisation about an entire group because of one or two people
Negative experience- may have been in an unpleasant situation with a minority group leading to narrow mindedness
Upbringing- parents own perceptions can lead to children stereotyping
Cultural differences
Appearance- the way a person looks and the image they portray with the look

Active promotion of equality and individual rights

Treating people equally- At Peacehaven care workers need to treat residents so it can give them equal access to services and provide a service that resident can have equal benefits from them.

Examples of how care workers at Peacehaven can treat people who are different equally:

A physically disabled patient may need extra help in order to take part in daily activities
A Muslim patient may a same sex care worker for personal task because of religion
A patient will need a translator because English is not their first language

Confidentiality- confidentiality is important at Peacehaven; however information has to be shared between workers because it will promote good quality care. To promote the residents rights care workers will have to tell them what information is held about them, who it will be shared to and why. Care workers will only need to see patient’s information on a need to know basis.

There could be reasons to why care workers need to pass on information without the patients' consent because that person can be in danger if the information is not passed on. For example:

A patient at Peacehaven has a mental disorder and needs to be referred to hospital to get proper treatment but refuses. The care worker will need to give information about the patients’ condition to a social worker so the social working decides whether to give her admission to a hospital.

Tensions and contradictions- care workers in Peacehaven may or have encountered s tension and situations that contradict their roles. Tension may arise because:

the rights of one person may clash with the rights of others, example- two residents have different rights in a certain situation but the care worker has to choose whose rights should take priority
two different rights a person has may conflict, example- a patient who like to wander at night has a right to choose and a right to be protected from harm
cultural values may conflict, example- a patient needs blood transfusion but refuses it because he/she is a Jehovah’s Witness

Staff development and training- training helps workers improve their practice and training also helps care workers recognise tensions on their work roles and how to deal with them. Without knowledge of service users rights and the care value base can cause tension. Care workers that go to training will make more difficult decisions that respect the patients at Peacehaven rights.

(Moonie, Neil- BTEC National Care- Heinemann Educational Books

Secondary Division (UK)-2003)

Individual rights- the rights to be respected, treated equally and not discriminated against, treated as an individual, treated in a dignified way, allowed privacy, protected from danger and harm, allowed access to information about themselves, able to communicate using their preferred methods of communication and language, cared for in a way that meets their needs, takes account of their choices and protects them; diversity and differences in culture, religion, race, disability, sexuality, beliefs, behaviour, eating and hygiene habits

P2-Explanation of the benefits of diversity to society

Benefits of diversity in Britain

The benefits of diversity

If people are excluded from society they cannot contribute and diversity in Britain opens people to new experiences and new ways at looking at things and this is important because there will be less racism and discrimination in society. Different culture ...

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Teacher Reviews

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Sam Morran

27th of Mar 2013

This is rather confusing essay. It feels a little as though the writer had an awful lot of information that they felt they should include. It isn't always relevant and makes it a little difficult to read at times. The writer should have applied the information they had researched to the care setting as this would demonstrate greater understanding. A good essay but far too much unneeded information.

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