Discrimination may mean that individuals spend their life struggling with low self esteem which is likely to reduce an individual’s opportunity to self actualise. Also, non verbal responses from others can influence an individual to develop an interior sense of self worth, lack of love and belonging can mean that a person believes that they do not belong in our society. The safety and physical needs an individual requires to live are in threat of attack, verbal abuse and feeling unsafe. These individuals are likely to suffer physical damaged from assault, or even mental health issues directly to those people who suffer stress or depression.
None-discriminatory work practice is work practice that treats people fairly and promotes equal opportunities. Health care professionals have a duty to promote non-discriminatory work practice in their day-to-day work. They can do this by being friendly and approachable with everyone regardless of their differences, being interested in people and finding out how their backgrounds affect their care needs and preferences.
Health care professionals should also reflect on their behaviour, they should ask themselves whether they label and stereotype people, whether they let their prejudices cause them to treat some people less favourable than others and whether they use expressions and laugh at jokes that could be hurtful of offensive to others. Health care providers can also help those who use the health settings and help them learn and recognise the value of people’s differences, ways to do this could include putting up visual displays to show positive images, organising activities such as visits and discussion groups.
Social and political factors that influence equal opportunity
Equal opportunity is about everyone having access to the same opportunities, however out social and political differences mean that we don’t all have equal opportunities, as the following examples illustrate:
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Ethnicity – Many people from different ethnic backgrounds can’t read, understand or speak English. As a result, they don’t have the same opportunity to access health care services as people who are English
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Religious Beliefs – People with different religious beliefs may have specific dietary needs. Organisations which don’t offer menus that take different beliefs into account deny people the same opportunity as others to have their dietary needs met. Believing in a particular issue should not interfere with being treated differently by health care professionals. Health care professionals must always respect other people’s religious beliefs and try to support their values to the best they possibly can. The Equality Act 2006 states it is unlawful for anyone to discriminate because of religious views or groups you follow. Under the British anti-discrimination and human rights act every individual is entitled to express their own views in public and should never feel threatened or pressured to change throughout their everyday lives. Direct religious discrimination is where an employee or prospective employee is less favourably treated because of their race, sex, marital status, religion, sexual orientation or gender reassignment. This tends to be obvious discrimination, for example, a black female candidate with the best qualifications and experience does not get an interview, but a white female candidate with fewer qualifications does.
‘’Direct discrimination is the most obvious form of discrimination. The central issue that needs to be examined is what the employer does and not what the motives may be’’
Indirect religious discrimination occurs where the effect of certain requirements, conditions or practices imposed by an employer has an adverse impact disproportionally on one group or other. This is a less obvious form of discrimination.
An Employment Tribunal will look at 3 factors.
1. The amount of people from a racial group or of one sex that can meet the job criteria is considerably smaller than the rest of the population.
2. The criteria cannot actually be justified by the employer as a real requirement of the job. So a candidate who cannot meet the criteria could still do the job as well as anyone else.
3. Because the person cannot comply with these criteria they have actually suffered in some way because of it. This seems obvious, but a person cannot complain unless they have lost out in some way.
With Indirect Discrimination an employer can argue that there may be discrimination, but that it is actually required for the job, (this is known as a "genuine occupational requirement" (GOR).
‘’This does not happen very often, but circumstances where it might occur are, for example, actors who are needed to play certain characters for authenticity. The same can be true for restaurants, for example an Indian restaurant will want Indian staff rather than white staff. Another example could be where race or gender is a genuine occupational qualification for the job, for example, employing women in an all female hostel’’.
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Social class – People in the lower social classes are more likely to earn low wages or be dependent on benefits. For this reason they don’t have the same opportunity as people higher up the social class laded to buy themselves a healthy lifestyle.
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Sexuality – People may feel bullied for being gay, lesbian or bisexual. Everybody has the right to their personal sexuality beliefs. Although Sex Discrimination Act 1975, is in place there are still people being discriminated against due to their sexuality. A homophobic nurse may not provide a gay, lesbian or bisexual person they would a straight person. This is unprofessional and would be against the law.
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322Gender – Many people believe that caring for dependent relatives is a feminine role. This traditional belief can deny woman the opportunity to develop themselves in the world of work and men the opportunity to be fulfilled as carers. Gender discrimination goes back hundreds of years ago, back when men done all the jobs and women were expected to stay at home and be a housewife. I believe direct gender discrimination could include a man feeling discriminated against because a hospital insists a female nurse chaperone is with a male nurse when caring and providing personal care to a female patient. Whereas a female nurse is able to provide her care to a male patient without a male chaperone.
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Age – Older people are knowledgeable, experienced and wise. However, they are less likely to be asked for their opinion; as a result of this they are given the same opportunity to have their say. The legislation relating to age discrimination is The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 this act states it is unlawful for someone to treat you differently due to our age. Whether you are a patient or member of staff you should always be valued and respected as a member of our community.
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Family Structure – Family structure can affect people’s ability to make the most of opportunities that are open to everyone else e.g. elderly person who live alone and lone carers find it hard to access services and play a role in their communities.
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Disability – People with disabilities are denied many opportunities to which healthy, able-bodied people have access: e.g. wheelchair users have restricted access to the public transport; people with mental health problems may be denied employment, and people with learning difficulties can find it difficult to be accepted within a community. People with a physical or mental disability are very vulnerable whilst staying at hospital, and have specific rights to protect them against discrimination, this could be substantial and have a long term affect on the individual. The disability discrimination act (DDA) is a key piece of legislation that is in place to stop disabled people being treated differently to those who are able bodied. By law employers must adapt their company to the best of their ability to make the place suitable for individuals with specific disabilities. However some companies still discriminate against people with disabilities even with legislation in place an indirect example of this could be a person in a wheelchair applying for a job with more qualifications relevant to that specific job, to an able bodied person applying for the same job. The disabled person does not get the job as it means the employer having to change the company facilities which will cost them more money.
Health and social care settings have policies to ensure equal treatment and equal chances for both staff and service users’ and their families. Health care settings believe in promoting, opposing and challenging discrimination in every area including language, bullying, covert or unintentional discrimination. Health care settings also give a clear guidance on all forms of harassment e.g. racial or sexual, experienced by both staff and service users.
Suppose that we are living in the society but the people around us always treat you differently to other people, how would you feel? The answer is that we will gradually lose our confidence and become living more isolated, and have narrower interactions with the outside the world. Discrimination effects people very widely; such as patients and visitors in health and social care settings. Discrimination influences people’s attitudes, lifestyles, and the opportunity to change the way they live and our futures.
‘’There have been many social and cultural benefits of Britain becoming a multicultural society. As early as the 1960’s Britain started to recruit nurse from across the commonwealth going as far as the Caribbean in order to fill vacancies within the NHS. Since mid 1990’s, people have come to work in the UK from across the European Union’’.
(BTEC National Health and Social Care, (Book 1) By Nelson Thornes)
As Britain tries to meet demands for housing and skill gaps in health and other specialised areas people came to work in areas as diverse as construction and dentistry.
The influence of diversity on society is evident all around us. The variety of food that is now widely available to all is one obvious effect of diversity. We can now eat exotic fruits, vegetables and spices that we would have previously had to travel to experience are now been arriving in Britain for a long time and have became an everyday food for many people. The number of people from diverse backgrounds within popular media such as TV, music and sport or high profile jobs such as MP’s and lawyers have led to second and third generation British immigrants finding an identity that confirms there place in society as one of equality. As part of a National Curriculum in schools, children and young people are taught to value diversity through exploring other cultures and world religions, as this is representative of the population. As society changes, there is a need to keep developing understanding, one that engenders tolerance and acceptance of diversity.
A diverse society can, however, create its own tensions and conflict. This can lead to discrimination against any individual or group who are different from the dominant group, the norm; in that situation this can be anything from race, religion, age, sexual orientation and many other reasons. It is vitally important that equality is promoted above discrimination within this multicultural society and diversity recognised especially within health care settings where people’s rights must be recognised no matter how diverse they may be.
Within health settings there is, just like the rest of society, an opportunity for discrimination whether it be against employees or patients. However the health service is looking to promote equality and equity. Equality is to offer the same opportunities and rights to every single person despite any differences they might have. Equity is to offer them the same fairness and impartiality but while recognises the diversity between individuals and groups and their needs are met appropriately. This equality is for both patients and staff alike.
Inequality in health and social care settings can cause a number of different problems for both patients and staff. These problems include feelings of embarrassment causing shy or withdrawn behaviour; some patients could receive better or faster care from staff due to favouritism. Other problems include patients only allowing certain staff to treat them for reasons of age, experience, race, religion or sex, there are many other reasons this could occur, but equally all can cause big problems in care settings.
All of these problems can be due to many reasons, whether it be upbringing, environment or simple lack of education. This is the main reason promoting equality is such an urgent issue in today’s society. Through education and promotion of equality many of these stereotypes that cause such labelling and bullying can be slowly but surely abolished.
Another way to promote equality is to recognise diversity and by recognising and accepting diversity many prejudices and stereotypes can be broken down. Recognising the difference that people have is only the first step once this differences are recognised it can then be seen what actual skills the person behind this diversity might bring to the table. Braking down stereotypes will also lead us to see the real person and treat them with equality instead of relying on the assumption we initially had of that person.
Recognising diversity in a health and social care setting is vital to a strong and friendly relationship with all patients and staff. Whether it is staffs attitudes and actions towards patients or vice versa, the respecting of each other’s rights creates an enjoyable workplace. This makes a patient feel comfortable to be in this setting. These patients must be made to feel safe, yet empowered, as many patients can feel vulnerable and are solely dependent on the care of health and social care workers. This is why all should abide by this respect for others.
There are many individual rights to be aware of whilst working in a health and social care setting, all applying to all workers patients or service users and providers.
These rights include the following; all should be treat as individuals, in a dignified and non – discriminatory way, as well as to be kept safe from danger and harm. All the needs of a patient should be cared for effectively. Other individual rights include the right to have privacy and confidentiality, whilst always being allowed access to information about themselves.
There are great deals of formal policies, charters and regulations, set up to encourage the acceptance of diversity and to promote individuals rights. These policies are one of the main ways care services recognise and promote equality, diversity, and rights. Some of these policies include, The mental health act, Race relations, Sex discrimination act, Disability discrimination act, The data protection act, and The human rights act, this being one of the most important.
Until October 2000, UK law covered only three areas of discrimination, which were race, sex and disability. This changed in October 2000 when the European convention on Human Rights was incorporated into UK law in the Human Rights act 1998.
Within this act, three main articles may cause implications for health care or early year’s workers. The first is “Article 2: Protection of Life”. The right to life provision will be very important in health settings. It must be considered in matters such as abortion and end of life decisions, such as whether or not to switch off life support machines. There are also other cases such as children in care that have not been allocated a social worker or residents of a closing nursing home, that will also be covered by this article, As many residents of nursing or care homes can have their life expectancy stunted by the moving to other grounds.
The second significant article to a care setting is “Article 3: Prohibitation of torture and inhumane and degrading treatment”. This article covers numerous painful or dangerous situations. This article may cover both neglectful treatment of service users in residential homes and the failure to protect children from abuse. In some circumstances life prolonging treatment that causes pain or suffering can also be covered. This also incorporates many other factors.
The third and final article likely to directly affect care workers is “Article 5: Rights to liberty and the security of the person”. This article can cover some of the most challenging cases in the care profession. Cases such as compulsory admissions to hospitals under the mental health act will have to meet the requirements for this article, this is a very distressing situation for both worker and patient, and must be dealt with, with the patient’s best interest at heart. Other situations this article might have repercussions on, are those such as locking the door of and elderly or mentally disabled patient even if they are at risk of wandering
Bibliography
Internet Resources:
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Book Resources:
BTEC National Health and Social Care, (Book 1) By Nelson Thornes
BTEC National Health and Social Care, (Book 2) By Nelson Thornes
BTEC first Health and Social Care (Val Michie) By Nelson Thornes
