Diversity and Equality Within the Health Care Free Essay Example

Introduction

In this essay, we are asked to write an essay on diversity and equality within the health care. We are to answer two case studies in this essay. I will start by answering the case studies and use assessment criteria as sub-heading to make my essay much easy to understand.

Case study 1

A trainee has approached you with a request not to have to deal with a patient because they feel she is treating them in a racist manner. Can they refuse to deal with a patient on these grounds?

The organisation sickness policy handbook must be handed to the trainee and be explained.

The employer must organise regular inductions where new company policies will be explained to trainees. There must be a supervision meeting between the trainee and the manager which must highlight the reasons why she is been sick, and a plan must be agreed by both parties in a short or long-term to help with future absents.

The equality Act says all persons must be treated with fairness, respect and dignity, so communication must be done in a confidential matter and follows the organisational policies.

Case Study 2

A trainee was diagnosed with depression about a year ago. She did not tell you until three months ago, when she confided in you about what she was experiencing and the treatment she was getting from her doctor and therapist. A month ago, the learner was signed off on sick leave. She returned to work last week but is overwhelmed.

She is determined, though, to carry on with her training. What support can you provide to her?

• Identify what triggers their depression
•  Encourage the person to explain more about their depression to understand the type and level of depression and to know best to support
•  Review the workload and advice the person to reduce working hours
• Advice the person to go for counselling or therapist

Analyse how equality and diversity can be promoted within healthcare

Equality is a social pedestal that ensures everyone in the same setting has equal opportunities regardless of their lifestyle, abilities or background.

Diversity is the acknowledgment that people are different from each other and accepting their values, cultures, beliefs and lifestyle.

To ensure these two values are in practice, we must all follow these laws The Equality Act 2010, The Human Rights Act, The Metal Capacity Act 2005 and The Care Act 2014

In the healthcare care environment patients and service users are individual people who desire their unique needs to be treated.

As stated on Chapter 1 (Equality act 2010) provides protection against discrimination for people regardless of disability, marriage and civil partnership, age, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex, gender reassignment and sexual orientation.

We understand that not one particular dose of paracetamol will cure everyone’s headache and the same applies when treating and interacting with people.

Although equality today has a big impact on society, due to us being more exposed to a diverse society allows us to study, making friends and working with people from other ethnicities as caused stigmatized stereotypes to fade.

a 2007 survey conducted by YouGov indicated that 90% of the British public supported outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. This shows that we have a more open-minded society. As huge changes in attitudes towards lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

However today equality is not completely eradicated as women are still earning considerably less than the male counterparts for every hour they work even though the UK gender gap among (ONS, 2017) full-time workers is at its narrows to lowest for 20 years, it’s still at 9.1% men working full-time earned average of £592 a week in April compared to £494 for women.

Almost three quarter of black African and Bangladeshi children grow in poverty which in such a stable society it those figures should be lower in addition since the 2010 election the number of MPs in the parliament who are ethnic minorities is 27 out of 650 in which according to the 2001 census is less than half the number it should be if it was a genuine reflection of the proportion of ethnic minorities in the UK.

Analyse how prejudice and discrimination may lead to the disempowerment of individuals

Prejudice and discrimination can lead to individuals or groups been faced with negative effects such as low self-esteem, conflicts within organisation, marginalisation and disempowerment. This section of the essay will concentrate on the impacts of prejudice and discrimination has on disempowering individuals in a healthcare setting. Disempowerment is most common an effect from prejudice and discrimination. If you have been bullied by an individual or group of people, then you may feel as diminished or disempowered. This makes you feel as though you do not have the power to fight back against them and may lead you to developing health issues which may influence one to be willing to accept the way that you are being treated. Prejudice is a preconceived judgement or opinion. These judgements are usually from people’s negative opinions or experiences about an individual or group of people. This kind of behaviour is not acceptable or professional as a health and social care worker. For example, if you are working as a paramedic, and you are called to an emergency for a teenage female aged 18 who has collapsed after consuming alcohol. If you assumed that they has just drank too much and couldn’t handle it, then this would be classed as prejudice behaviour as you do not know the details of the individual or any current or previous health problems of that person. This kind of behaviour is not acceptable or professional as a health and social care worker. Prejudice can lead to discrimination, but it is not the only factor in discrimination. A person can also harbour prejudices without discriminating, especially if they are mindful of their own prejudice and take proactive steps to counter it.

Evaluate the application of human rights within health care

Discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person due to prejudice, stereotyping and being judgemental. People can discriminate for several reasons this could range from age, disability, ethnicity, gender, geographic location, political persuasion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, race or religion. For example, in healthcare where there are more females’ workers than males, a person may be discriminated against because of her gender such as been a male. This can affect them to gain confidence and been empowered to care for their service users. This can also lead to them been powerless and fearful of taking control of their self and may act under influence to please their abusers.

Analyse some possible implications for health care of current equality legislation

The Equality Act brings together over 116 separate pieces of legislation into one single Act. Combined, they make up a new Act that provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all (Equalityhumanrights.com, 2018). The Equality Act is a major step for discrimination law, the aim is to deliver a simple, modern and accessible framework to protect individuals from unfair treatment and promote a fair and more equal society. The main objective of the Act is to eliminate all barriers which hinders quality in a healthcare setting. Such as the equal pay act which promotes equal pay between males and female employees in healthcare. There are many diversity and religious affiliations of service users in healthcare. The Equality Act promotes respect for all persons and their religion including diets. He Disability Discrimination act (1995) was put in the place to prevent any discrimination that disabled people may be confronted with. The Act protects disabled people with rights for employment, education, access to goods, facilities and services and buying or renting land or property. Disabled people must have the same chance of getting a job as somebody that has no disabilities.

Reference

1. https://spearheadelearning.com/equality-and-diversity-in-health-and-social-care/
2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents
3. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/26/uk-gender-pay-gap-narrows-to-lowest-for-20-years-but-is-still-91
4. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2017provisionaland2016revisedresults
5. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/schedule/1/part/I/chapter/1/paragraph/1
6. https://www.scie.org.uk/mca/introduction/mental-capacity-act-2005-at-a-glance
7. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/9/section/2