Explain the concepts of equality, diversity and rights in relation to health and social care

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Equality, Rights and Diversity Maxine Gee

P1 Explain the concepts of equality, diversity and rights in relation to health and social care

There are many benefits of diversity in health and social care and these can be split into social/cultural and economic.

The social/cultural benefits of diversity can be explained from the perspective of arts, diet and language. In art there are pictures, films, theatre, museums ect all showing how different people have been and still are in society. An example of this is Egyptian wall which was painted onto tombs and monuments and shows how the Egyptians lived years ago. Another example is films made in other countries which can demonstrate culture from around the world in a form that is easy for people to understand and to educate people about other cultures and ways of living.  With the knowledge from the arts a person working in health and social care can develop a deeper understanding of diversity.

Another way of demonstrating social/cultural benefits is through diet. Many people who live in Britain choose to eat food from other countries like Chinese and Indian food. This is partially due to a multicultural society and partially due to people traveling to different countries and tasting different foods and drinks. This needs to be taken into account when planning a person’s diet. When planning what a person eats it is important to ask them about their likes and dislikes and what they can and cannot eat as this is all part of considering and respecting their diversity. A person’s religion may also effect what they can eat for example halal meat is a requirement. Diet is also linked to social class; this is because it has been found that people in the higher income bracket are more likely to eat their 5 a day than people in the lower income bracket. A nutritionist working in health a social care could be acting in a discriminatory way if they are not taking all of these things into consideration when planning or helping someone plan their meals.

Language is another way of demonstrating social/cultural benefits. Many service users in for example hospitals and clinic care may not speak English so it is important health care professionals are able to communicate with them. This can be overcome by a translator or a health care professional who can speak their language. There is a lot of online development and there is a now lot of information in most spoken languages. Information is available in sign language and the visually impaired can use specialist software which speaks the information to the viewer. Also most websites also have an accessibility option for people who cannot read the text. Being an interpreter is now seen as a new career in the health services, so speaking another language is clearly beneficial for health and social care professionals. If a Doctor is treating a non-English speaking service user and does not organize an interpreter this would be discriminatory practice. This would be discriminatory practise because they are not putting the service user’s needs first, the service user would not understand the treatment they would be receiving and could potentially be life threatening.

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There are many economic benefits of diversity, these can be seen everywhere. The clothes that we wear, the food that we eat and the people who we work with are all factors that are the economic rights of diversity. There are now many diverse shops these range from big names on the high street to small independent manufacturers and those who sell products on the internet all add up to a richly varied community. In relation to health and social care professionals, new techniques, equipment and software developments are being sheared around the world this all means that people are ...

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