Discriminatory_Practices_in_Health_and_Social_Care

.Discriminatory practices in health and social care Firstly, what is discriminatory practice' Discriminatory practice can be define as the unfair treatment of people based on their racial group, minority, etc. Actions are mostly based on prejudice. Discriminatory practices in health and social care is prohibited and, anti discriminatory practices is encouraged within the care system. There are various people working in care that may experience discrimination in one form or another depending on their age, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, gender and religion. All these are factors that could lead to discrimination in care and their effects are different depending on who the discrimination is against. There are four kinds of discrimination. * Direct discrimination: this is deliberate discrimination. Example is when there is a particular job that is only opened to specific racial group * Indirect discrimination: example of indirect discrimination is introducing a dress code without good reason, which might discriminate against some ethnic groups in a healthcare work place. * Harassment: participating in or allowing behaviour that offends someone or creates a intimidating atmosphere eg making racist jokes at work) * Victimisation: treating someone less favourably because they have complained or been involved in a complaint about racial discrimination. Example of this is taking disciplinary action against someone for complaining about discrimination against themselves another person. Age Discrimination against a person because of his or her age is known as ageism. Its mainly those aged 50 years or older, but unlike other forms of discrimination ageism normally goes unnoticed in the UK. Ageism is hurtful to older citizens because it dismisses their individuality and instead makes general assumptions about their abilities, conditions, welfare and their preferences. Ageism can often be found in the health and social care systems. The health and social care systems are also the system that is meant to support older citizens. Unfortunately, at the moment there is no legislation or law against ageism in health and social but individuals in care systems can ensure everybody in need of care is treated fairly. This is because ageism has effects on the victims. The effects can be psychological, physical or health wise. Some individual who experiences any form of discrimination may face acceptance, denial and sometimes even decide to shorten their lives. Sexuality Discrimination because of sexuality is when you are treated unfairly because of your sexuality. Sexuality is also known as sexual orientation. Your sexual orientation depends on whether you are sexually attracted towards your own sex, the opposite sex or the same and the opposite sex. If sexuality discrimination takes place in any of the following situations employment and training, education when providing goods and services, for example, banking, entertainment and transport, housing, any of the activities carried out by public authorities, such as the NHS, government departments, local authorities, the police and prisons, it is illegal. And one can take action about it. Over the years, sexism has had negative effects on our society especially the women. Sexism makes women feel inferior to men and gives them less opportunity in life. Sexism helps stereotype women. Today men still think they are stronger and more superior to women. For example in healthcare about 30 years ago men are said to be doctors as they are seeing more to be authority figure and women nurses. And they were meant to take orders from the doctors. In workplaces today, women are sometimes still seen to be inferior and also looked upon Ethnicity: Another form of discriminatory practice that may be found in care systems is discrimination based on an individual’s ethnicity. This is also known as racism. Ethnic discrimination is the unequal treatment of people based on the fact that they belong to a certain ethnic or national group. Ethnic discrimination can also involve placing a person in a different position on the basis of religion, skin colour or nationality. Racism can affect individuals in different way. Some individuals might feel isolated and loose self confidence after experiencing racism. But other individuals may decide to become tougher and build up their self in order to withstand this discrimination act against them Discriminatory practices in workplaces Police force: police are public services. A research shows almost two of every eight black police in the Uk has experienced racism at work from colleagues and superiors. A case where the police force has been branded institutional racist is Steven Lawrence case in 1993. The type of services received by his family after his death was less favourable than what white families would receive in a situation like this. Education: Findings in the report entitled ‘Race for Equality’ show that 1 in 6 Black students have experienced racism in their current institution, one third do not trust their institution to properly handle complaints, and one third feel their educational environment leaves them unable to bring their perspective as Black students to lectures and tutorial meetings. The report is the conclusion of a two year research project that gathered existing evidence and combined it with new surveys and focus group evidence to understand the experience of Black students in further and higher education. The evidence from qualitative data showed that many students were put off applying to Russell Group universities, which include Oxford and Cambridge, because their poor record on recruiting Black students implied students would be more likely to experience racism there than at other institutions. Social services: From being an almost totally white profession in the mid-1970s, today’s evidence suggests that social workers from ethnic minorities are well represented within the profession. The General Social Care Council's annual report on social work education for 2009-10 showed students from ethnic minorities made up 21% of enrolments on the social work degree. Yet while one should not in any way play down these achievements, there is a danger that the mere employment of black workers could simply result in the relocation and unmasking of racism. Although these days they are allot of ethnic minority social workers, within social work education there appears to be much unfinished work, such as the probability of a student achieving a social work qualification being significantly lower if students belong to ethnic minority categories.