Diversity (race, belief) and also equality -
Rights to individuality- this is the right to express yourself in the way that you wish so. Everyone is given the right to express their selves at the care home by the different activities that where taking place each day which gave people choice, decision making was completely up to them, this is regards to what they eat and wear. Not many decisions were made by the carers unless it was completely necessary as this would be violating their right to independence which is in the care value base. There was a room dedicated to pray and meditation. This room wasn’t used very much and most of the service users were not religious. As you went inside of the room you got the view that although the room was dedicated to pray it only seem to have a cross inside of the room, I felt that this would have made the variety of people from the different religious backgrounds feel as thought their religious views were not being put forward as part as the home that they are living in.
Discrimination is also made against the employees this is done national this done by :
Vertical discrimination – this is done by males and females getting varied amount of money per hour or year. Females usually getting lower income than the males who are carrying out the same job or similar jobs.
Horizontal discrimination - this is when females are discriminated by having such jobs like caring for the elderly, these jobs are intentionally paid at a lower rate as such jobs as electricians.
Although the Employment Act 2000 Act 1975 has included in the act that it is illegal to discriminate against sex his is part of the , it still happens. Surprisingly no law has been passed to protect people with disabilities has not been explicitly covered in the Employment act 2000.
Effects of prejudice ( this is an unfavourable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason) in the care home by the carer is that it can lead to unfair discrimination (treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favour of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit ) which can lead to abuse towards the client (to use wrongly or improperly; misuse: to abuse one's authority by physical or verbal harm .) This may affect the client negatively by them being socially excluded from the group as they feel low on their self worth. This will just lead to oppression of the client.
Equality and diversity can be broken down into sections these are:
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Age –most of the clients are in their late 70’s and over so they are a similar age.
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Disability – they all have serious mobility issues so man power and machines like hoists has to be used to move them around
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Ethnicity – the care home was only made up of Caucasians, there is no real mix of ethnicity and there is no real minority group.
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Religion and personal ideas – only one of the residents seem to be religious there is a room that is available for her to into and pray but she chooses to go to church as she dislikes the room.
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Sexual orientation – most of the clients are single or have partners who are also in the care home. They all mostly heterosexual so the law wouldn’t really affect them. Most of them are also highly against the idea of homo/ bisexual individuals.
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Gender – there are more females than males in the care home so it may mean that the men may not have much choice over what they do that day as the females votes wins.
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transgender status – N/A
Acts that protect the service user
Legalisation comes about by media, pressure groups and MP’s bringing up an idea like equality in care homes. Then people realise that this becomes an issue of equal opportunity. The parliament discusses this and then the government research and write a report on this matter. Then the civil services make a recommendation such as: passing an act to protect people who are of different ethnicities. The government produces a green paper, which people have access to, they debate about the matter, the civil services passes on findings of the debate to the government who then produce a white paper which then creates further debates about the matter, the house of parliament debates proposals the proposals get the royal asset which then finally leads to legalisation of the matter.
The sources of equality in law are the British courts, British parliaments European Union and the European courts. The British court passes case law and the British parliament passes acts of parliament. The European Union passes directives ad regulations and the European courts passes case laws. These are all then become into one equality law. These laws are the put into care settings by charters organisational policies and codes of practice (this is the same for all the organisations).
There are 3 different European laws affecting individuals these are:
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Regulations – this is the strongest law out of the three and must be carried out by all the members of the state straight away.
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Directives – applied by members of the state to make their laws related to all the other members of the state.
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Decisions - when an individual or organisations appeals against an idea or a thought of the courts of the UK so then the case must be taken to European courts of justice.
There are laws such as the race relations act 1976; this was amended in the year 2003 – these amendments were more related to schools. This protects the clients against unjust treatments due to their racial ethnicity. The act defines discrimination as “less favourable treatment according to racial ground” .This plans to promote racial individuality as a positive thing. Although the care home I was visiting didn’t have any clients from different ethnic background, they were still welcoming to individuals by different backgrounds. Under the care value base they were not allowed to discriminate against them. There were also organisational polices such that there was a carer who was in charge of taking the clients who were religious to church and make sure that they are happy that their needs as an individual is being met. This carer was also in charge of making amendments to the home for persons who had joined the home.
Human rights:
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Right to life – this is important in my work placement as most of the service users are much older and it’s important for the carers to understand that they have a right to life and their life is as important as someone much younger.
- freedom of expression
- right to marry and start a family
- right to respect family life and home and correspondence
- freedom from retrospective criminal law and no punishment without law
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Freedom from torture or inhuman degrading treatment – this can also relate as it protects the service users from abuse and unjust treatment which may be physical or verbal.
- free of assembly and association
- right to fair trail within a reasonable time
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Freedom from unfair discrimination – this relates to my work place so that all of the clients from different ethnic backgrounds get the same treatment. So they have a right to join the nursing home and to be part of the group and to be treated equally.
- right to liberty and security of persons
- right to education
- right to free elections
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Freedom of thought conscience and religion – this protects the client’s right to practice their religion and to have choice in their activities they do, so they are not limited and not forced into an idea.
The mental health act 1983 was amended in 2007, this just states that people with intellectual impairments have the right to be treated as everyone else is treated. It also states that a member of the clients family or the social services has to agree that its okay for the client to go into care as they are physically unable to look after their selves as they are not in right state of mind. It also states that two doctors need to agree if there is any debate to if the patient should really be in care as they are unfit to care for their selves or not and this is done through a series of tests that the client has to pass in order to prove that they are capable to stay in their home and that they are not going to be harm to their selves or anyway one else around them.
Disability discrimination act 1996 was amended in 2007. It just states that people who have a physical impairments are treated the same as everyone else. The amendments in 2007 were that the disabled people were allowed to be employed and the employer should not just judge the candidates suitability for a job on their disability unless that they will be unable to carry out the job, to a good standard which would just make them unsuitable for that particular job.
Sex discrimination act 1975 amendments were made in 1986, father amendments were made in 2007but this was more to do with maternity leave. This was explained as “less favourable treatment on grounds of gender or material status”. The act is related to both women and men but it seams that the women would benefit more form this act as they are more likely to be victims of prejudice. The amendments in 1986 outlawed discrimination in smaller organisations and work places.
The government under several acts such as: international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights 1976 and also the human right declarations. These both state that everyone has a right to care and to access to care however what these do not state is that the UK government is obliged to giving us the free care (NHS).
Section 3 on the 2006 act summarises:
- people's ability to achieve their potential is not stopped by prejudice or discrimination;
- there is respect for and protection of each individual's human rights;
- there is respect for the dignity and worth of every individual;
- every individual has an equal opportunity to participate in society; and
- There is mutual respect between groups based on understanding and valuing diversity and on shared respect for equality and human rights.
There are also bodies such as the; Equality and Human Rights Commission who was established under the 2006 equality act.
Empowerment – residents have the choice to do what they want when they want they are given a choice one when to be waken up in the morning and they are given choices to what they eat each day.
Care value base- this is a mixture of:
- promoting anti discriminatory practice
- maintaining confidentiality of information
- promoting and supporting individuals personal beliefs and identities
- promoting effective communication and relationships
- providing individuals care
- empowerment
The care value base came around 1992; it can apply to any age group that is in a care environment.
Anti-discriminatory practise - this is stopping prejudice views which equal to unfair treatment. At my work place discrimination was stopped by
Independence: this was given to the clients by allowing the service user to dress their selves with minimal help, this was said to me that it will help both the carer and service user respect each other, but more the carer as the service user is less dependant on them; so they wont feel as though service user is annoying them or in any way irritating them.
Training- I was made aware that discriminatory was overcome by training and teaching the carers about the service users conditions such as dementia so they are made aware of the problems and having understanding of the condition meant that the carers had more respect for the service user.
Barriers: these are factors which affect negatively the service user by denying their right to obtaining care.
Physical barriers – the disabled ramps outside had been vandalised so they were not really in a usable condition. It seamed as it gave a negative vibe about using the ramp as it looked dirty. In the garden there was difficulty with the little step that was there, if there was a disabled person who lived in the residence I think they would find it hard to get in and out of the garden which may mean that they can become excluded from social groups and they also loose their right to choice the sufficient equipment is not there to cater for the service user.
There was a stair lift so that the clients could go up and down the stairs and have access to their rooms which were on the second floor.
Services and information: at the reception area which was the offices of the supervisors and manger they had leaflets and information about the care home which allowed the possible service users information about the daily routines and events that would be taking place, this allowed the service user to analyse the care home to see whether it was suitable for them or not. There was also information about events around on the notice bored which was in the lounge. There was also a lot of communication going on which allowed the service users to be made aware of possible events that were coming up. This meant that everyone was made aware of events that were coming up. I also found out that the care home had translated information available for possible service users that wanted access to the service but they didn’t understand English, this was in; French, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Urdu ; these were because in the past these were the only type of people who accessed the service but they let me know that it was possible for them to get the information on the care home translated on demand if they needed to do it.
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