Describe the potential effects of discriminatory practice on those who use health or social care services

The potential effects of this discrimination can go on to include Marginalisation, Disempowerment, Low self-esteem and self-identity and even negative behaviours including aggression and criminality.

Marginalisation will come in to context should anyone discover David’s diagnosis of HIV, this will mean that David is placed outside of social acceptance and won’t feel that he belongs or even has a participation within society. This kind of discrimination is likely to mean that David is excluded from activities in which others take part in this will solely be because of David’s sexuality and his diagnosis of HIV.

Disempowerment makes David as an individual unable to challenge the discrimination he is facing and experiencing. David as an individual will feel that no one is there for him to either just listen, be a shoulder to cry on or to support him or any claims towards him. This for David will be a very emotional rollercoaster as he will not really have a sense of belonging he will not know where he fits in to society or what role he plays which is Marginalisation. If David’s discrimination goes on to spread further round groups of individuals within his community and society he will totally be disempowered. David will go on to find himself at the lowest point. This is when a health care professional is most important, as someone to care for David and to help him over his struggles. A health care professional should not abuse this opportunity because this is the career choice they chose for a reason, they want to not only treat people but they also want to deliver a level of care for a person.

By facing both marginalisation and disempowerment David will go on to suffer from low self-esteem and self-identity. This is where a health worker will need to pay close attention on David’s self-esteem and will constantly re-assuring David and closely working with him to improve this.
If David does experience low self-esteem he will experience so many emotions at once that often we find this to be the stage where things can go horribly wrong. We often find that because individuals have no one to turn to, to reassure them they find themselves completely giving up on life as they feel no one wants them or needs them and they choose to commit suicide. David as an individual will be feeling helpless, powerless; it can cause depression, worthlessness and will go on to lead to negative self-identity. As a health care professional this is where it is your duty to step in and just to brighten David’s day and help him keep on the positive side of life so that you are putting the Care Value Base into practice and not just benefitting yourself but also your service user.

If David’s abuse goes as far as to really break him as a person, David could have the personality switch of not welcoming the community which surrounds him but instead it will turn him against the community against society and against the people who have hurt him the most. This will mean that David may experience negative behaviour which may include aggression or criminality. David will face this because of how people are treating him, he will see it as why should he give anything back to society, why should he accept people for who they are when there is no one there to accept him or welcome him into society. This will be based upon the fact that David has been subjected to constant unfair treatment, unfair dismissal day after day which will slowly become intolerable for David as it will slowly lower his self-esteem and eventually go on to destroy him as a person. This will all be shown through anger, hurt, frustration and will be expressed through some form of aggression towards another person or group of people.