- Remain calm and speak in a firm, quiet vioce
- Make it clear that physical violence is unacceptable
- Make it clear that verbal abuse will not be tolerated
- Listen in turn to both sides of the argument- don’t let people interupt each other
- Look for reasonable compromises which involve both parties in winning some points and losing other
- Make it clear to both sides that they will have to compromise- that total victory for one or the other is not an option’’
(S/NVQ level 2 health and social care by Yvonne Nolan, Alyson Winn)
Similar to ‘balancing individuals right with rights of others’ , ‘supporting individuals to express their needs and preferences’ and ‘providing active support consistent with the beleifs, culture and values and preferences of the individual’; promoting individuals’ rights, choices and wellbeing also focus on over coming discrimination by refering to the serivce users individual choices and rights. If the service user feels that they are having their rights met fully and choices respected then there is much less of a chance of conflict and anger throughout Peacehaven house. Also if there well being is being promoted then they are assured that they are the service providers main priority. Empowerment is a key part of care need for all health and social care settings including Peace Haven house. By empowering the service user is recognising their right to freedom from discrimination. Empowerment is when the service user feels in contol of their own care; when this doesn’t happen they can adapt a low self esteem and feel bullied or discriminated against. Being able to retain or regain control over health cares makes a huge contribution to empowering individuals and giving them control over their own lives. Those who are undertaking their own care are taking control of a key aspect of being independent.
Care workers can use reflective practice to recognise the service users right to freedom. This is an integral part of health and social care practice and is considered helpful to reflect on health and social care experiences to improve the practice and care in which service users receive. Therefore , that helps the service provider learn from past experiences and can often be considered as ‘thinking things over’. There are many approaches to learning through reflective practice and Donald SCHON- founder of Reflective Practice considered two different times when individuals might use reflective practice. ‘’Reflect in practice- this is when you are involved in a situation and you have reflected on it at the time. You are thinking on your feet. You have access to a wide range of personal knowledge rapidly… Reflect on practice- this occurs after the situation has taken place and reflect on it then. You think things over at your leisure and build your own knowledge or understanding’’ (] An example of reflect in practice in Peacehaven house could be a new carer attempting to hoist a patient into the bath but doesn’t know how to do it properly and is failing to complete this task. Therefore she thinks fast and calls for another member of staff to help hoist the patient. She was reflective in practice because she thought the process through whilst on the job and come up with a way of overcoming the difficulty. An example of reflecting on practice would be a carer attempting to hoist a patient into the bath but doesn’t know how to do it and is failing to complete the task so instead of quickly thinking it through and fetching someone else to help; the carer carries on attempting to carry out the task alone but in the end gives in because she cant physically do it by herself. So later on, in her own time the carer will sit there and think about the events and how she could have overcome it by asking someone for help and that it could have been successful if she reflected on practice rather than on the practice later on. What reflective practice does is allows all individuals to reflect on what went well, what didn’t go so how and how it can be improved in future events.
‘Kolb’’ is a different theory in which individuals can reflect and improve on their work performance by experiementing with different learning styles. Kolb used the idea of a learning spiral to develop a theory of learning styles. He suggested that CE is involved with feeling, AE is involved with doing, AC is involved with thinking and RO is involved with watching. ‘’ Kolb’s theory focuses on learning by experience. He suggests we learn in the following stages:
- Concrete experience (CE)- this means we experience an event such as getting sun burnt
- Reflective observation (RO)- we then reflect on the experience and consider why we got burned
- Abstract conceptualisation (AC)- as a result of reflecting we might develop the general idea that going out in the sun without sun block is a bad idea
- Active experimentation (AE)- next time we go in the sun we use sun block to see whether this prevents sunburn.’’
(BTEC national Health and Social Care by Beryl stretch and Mary Whitehouse. Page 139)
An example of using Kolb’s learning style to promote anti discrimination in health and social care could be:
(CE) Two residents of opposite sexes are arguing that one gender is better than the other
(RO) Carer gets involved and listens to both sides of the argument and reflects on why they are arguing
(AC) Carer remains unbiased no matter which party she really wants to agree with and as a result of reflecting, tells the service users that neither of them are right and neither of them are wrong and that arguing won’t make the situation any better.
(AE) Carer discusses the pros and cons of each point from both sides and tells them that verbal abuse is not acceptable and that neither of them is going to win the argument as neither of them is wrong.
Carers can use their own skills and general knowledge to recognise any discrimination and report promptly to the correct person. However in some cases as shown above, service providers’ interference can often help challenge discriminatory issues. This could be by using either of the reflective theories I have discussed (Reflective learning and Kolb) and by actively promoting anti discrimination by following the eight principles that I have discussed.
There are various beliefs and values that may influence a carer’s contribution to anti discriminatory practice at Peacehaven house. These range from personal beliefs and values, culture, environment, and health and well-being to socialisation media, past events and tolerance differences.
Personal beliefs influence the way carers work as they may be part of a different culture to a patient and therefore treat them unfairly if they do not agree with what they believe in. In Peacehaven house, one of the residents is being treated unfairly by service providers because she is a practicing Hindu. Whereas if another patient was part of the same culture as the carer than they may be treated nicer and be given more opportunities than those of different cultures. However care workers should treat all there patients with the same respect and promote equality and diversity to each and every one of the residents. When implementing anti discriminatory practice in Peacehaven house, staff may be resistant because they have adapted a negative attitude towards Hindu’s and may be not used to working with them, therefore they will need correct and efficient training.
People’s beliefs can also effect how they perform when working in health and social care settings. In positive situations, staff will use their professional attitudes to override other beliefs that would usually negatively affect how they promote anti discriminatory practice at their work place. Care providers must remember that service users are right in their own ways and personal beliefs and opinions should not interfere with the way they provide care to service providers. Religion can also influence how workers promote discrimination in relation to beliefs and values as they may not have the same beliefs as others individuals and therefore treat them more unfairly. An example of how religion could affect work practice is a carer who is a Muslim but needs to prepare a meat included dish for a service user. They would need to override their beliefs of not coming in contact with meat and act as a professional.
The environment also influences how carers work as that persons living environment affects how they feel in general. If the carer is leading a happy life then they should be a generally happy person in work too, however if the care provider is unhappy then she may take it out on patients that are an easy target such as a man who is the only HIV positive resident in Peacehaven house. Because they seem an easy target, the care worker could treat them unfairly and discriminate against them because there is no-one else in the home to understand how he feels and to support him. The work place environment also affects the way service providers promote anti-discriminatory practice because if there is a group of people needing to be treated but the environment is very busy and noisy then the care worker may become distracted and not treat the service users who are a priority until last just because they are hard work or if the carer isn’t too fond of them.
The service providers’ health and well-being is a big contribution to the performance they give at work. ‘’Well-being and healthy living go hand-in-hand. Healthy living goes beyond eating a balanced diet, taking regular exercise and avoiding illness. It also reflects the mental, emotional and social aspects of an individual’s life’’. (]. If they are feeling ill themselves then they may not put their best effort into assisting patients. As a result, patients may become ill themselves and the staff member may even pass on virus’s to other staffs and residents in Peacehaven house. Also if a carer is mentally unwell themselves then they may not understand why discriminating is unacceptable; therefore they could discriminate against their service user;s resulting in both parties having low self esteem and often feeling victimised.
Socialisation can influence how service providers work in health and social care settings, partly because when working; work should be the only thing on carers mind and working out what is best for the service users. However if the carer is chatting on their phone and planning a night out whilst treating a patient then the patient will not feel cared for and feel that they are at the centre of their provision. Also if carers socialise the night and/or day before work and consume alcohol then they may have a hangover the next day when they are completing their shift. They may even miss signs of patients being unwell if they are still tired and under the influence of alcohol. Also, it is important not to give any details out about patients when out socialising or making fun of their situation and problems as this is a form of discrimination and is breaching Peacehaven house’s confidentiality policy.
In some cases, the media and press coverage can affect how service providers treat their patients and can affect the way in which anti-discriminatory practice is promoted in Peacehaven house. ‘’Citizen, patients and caregivers ‘consumers’ are early adopters of social media in health, compared to other industry stakeholders including providers, plans, payers and suppliers such as pharmacies and medical equipment companies’’ () [24/04/08] If service providers see bad reports in the media about their care setting and level of care they give out then they may take it to heart and think that they are rubbish in their job. This results in a poor wellbeing and as stated above, it then affects how they treat their patients. Also, if care providers see it glorified in the news and press coverage that service providers are not treating there patients to the correct standards then they may think that this is acceptable and start to copy the behaviour of other service providers who are not efficient in providing care to others. In the media if there are bad reports about an illness and there is fun made out of it then the care provider may continue these jokes into Peacehaven house and discriminate against victims on the press.
Past events nearly always affects the care in which service providers provide; this could be in a positive or negative way. In a negative situation a fellow carer could tell another carer that one of the patients had been hard work that morning so when the carer goes in that same afternoon; they could be stern and unfair to the patient in case they are difficult when in fact, the patients mood may have changed. Another example of negative past experiences could be working with a certain group of people in one job and then in their next job at Peacehaven house, they work with them again but after bad experiences they do not interact and communicate effectively as the service provider may not feel comfortable working with that group of people. However there are also positive effects of past events. If the carer had a hard time in their other workplace and was treated unfairly then they will realise what it feel like for residents at Peacehaven house who are being discriminated against. This will ensure that the carer does not discriminate against other staff or residents and can also offer support and guidance to those who are being victimised.
To overcome discrimination in Peacehaven house new policies and procedures could be put into place. These could inform people about discrimination and its effects along with describing victimisation and marginalisation caused from how staff members treat their patients. ‘’Discrimination in the workplace isn't just inappropriate, it's illegal. Employers need to take every measure possible to safeguard employees against these issues. This includes creating thoughtful procedures and policies and delivering that information in an effective manor.’’ () [2009] Peacehaven house managers should require that all care staff read those policies and be there to discuss and answer any questions they may have. Once the information has been delivered to the manager and senior carers at Peacehaven house; they could test employers of their knowledge to see exactly what information has been understood by the employee. Any polices and procedures enforced at Peacehaven house should be reviewed annually and regularly; to ensure that the manager is providing the best training to their staff; employees could be requested to take an exam annually to keep the information fresh. This will ensure employees don't lose sight of the importance of stopping workplace discrimination. Managers should receive a higher level of training than regular care workers; they should be trained in fostering diversity and preventing discrimination in the workplace Manager should have this special diversity training available to them when they start working at Peacehaven House and/or when new polices are enforced.
However, not all procedures are so straight forward and difficulties may occur upon implementing new policies and procedures to Peacehaven House. Staff may ignore these new guidelines; resulting in managers and senior care staff receiving resistance from staff. In cases like so the care value base should be referred to and for staff to look back on and think of their actions. When working in any health and social care setting, the care value base should always been considered and Peacehaven house is no exception. The care value bases sets a range of standards out for which health and social care workers should comply with. The overall aim is to improve patients’ quality of life; they do this by ensuring that each patient receives the care that is appropriate to them as an individual and their individual needs. ‘’ The care value base offers guidance; and sets standards, in three main areas of health and social care:
Fostering (which means supporting and encouraging) equality and diversity
Fostering peoples rights and responsibilities
Maintaining confidentiality of information’’ () [2006].
To harmonise discrimination situations that affect carers work performance; it is vital that all allegations of discrimination are quickly resolved; any claims of discrimination at Peacehaven house should be investigated quickly and in cases when the staff member is found to be guilty, punishment should be delivered immediately. This could be in the form of termination or probation from being a carer at Peacehaven House and all consequences should always be documented in writing to protect the company from any legal action.
