Local Care Home Essay

At this care home, equality, diversity and rights is very important as residents come from a wide cross-section of society. This chapter is set for the new staff members to deliver good quality and compassionate care for our services users. This handbook contains the policies, rules and procedures referred in your contract of employment and the ones you are expected to abide by as a member of the Local Care Home team Wishing all of you a pleasant and worthwhile time with your career at this organisation – your line manager Know your key terms Here is an explanation, with examples of what equality, diversity and rights mean: Equality is being equal and having a fair society, especially in rights, status or opportunities. Some people may experience discrimination because of gender, race, sexuality, age, disability and few others. For example; A blind person is at a disadvantage because they can’t look at a presentation or won’t be able to know what it is about. A diverse action towards this situation is if you read what the power point said they would be getting all equal chances to their education. Diversity means accepting differences; everyone’s differences are equal and accepted/respected. An example of this is; professionals in a health and social care setting should have an understanding that each and every one of their patients is unique and be able to recognise and accept these differences. Rights is a legal entitlement to carry out or have something. When we talk about this, it means mostly to give all the equal opportunities whether small or big. In a health and social care setting such as a nursing home,  every one of the service users should have the right to live, freedom and education. No one should be treated in any different way because of the way they are. Vulnerability (the state of being exposed to emotional or physical danger/harm from others) – in health and social care settings, many people are vulnerable due to the nature of their support needs Non-discriminatory practice is a term used to describe appropriate professional practise. This refers to a number of things: Not treating individuals or groups less favourably than others, whether the treatment is on purpose or not Being treated equally and getting the right non-discriminated care and procedure in a health and social care setting is very important and this will also be expected and assumed from the patients that they are being treated the same as others Valuing diversity All staff and patients must appreciate diversity and respect each other diversely as everyone is unique in their own ways. Meeting individuals’ diverse needs For example if your patient has speech and learning difficulties or their sight is impaired, it is your duty to enable communication any way possible. This could be through body language and tone of voice Discriminatory practice is when someone is discriminated against with a number of forms of discrimination. There are four types of discrimination. Discriminating is treating someone less favourably because of their certain features as mentioned above. This is known as direct discrimination. Discrimination can occurs where there is a policy, practice that disadvantages people. This is a form of indirect discrimination. Harassment, unwanted conduct violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive act. And lastly, victimisation, example of this is; unfair treatment of an employee who made or supported a complaint Discrimination can have many negative impacts on someone’s life and cause  problems and result in low self-esteem and stress. The equality act 2010 mentioned below protects the rights of certain individuals and makes sure that all are being treated equally in all aspects and provides opportunities. You should also bear in mind that patients with certain disabilities may be affected by your or other people’s reactions to their condition. This will also have an impact on their ability to communicate. The Equality Act 2010 This is a legislation which replaced many anti-discrimination laws with a single act. It simplified the laws on things such as sex and religious discrimination. This made it much easier for people to understand and comply with the law. This act promotes the protection for certain people and tackles discrimination and inequality. Here is an example; You suffer from depression, so it’s very hard for you to make decisions or even to get up in the morning. You’re forgetful and you can’t plan ahead. Together, these factors make it difficult for you to carry out day-to-day activities. You’ve had several linked periods of depression over the last two years and the effects of the depression are long-term. So, for the purposes of the Equality Act, you’re defined as a ‘disabled person’. Before the Equality Act, you might not have been able to get disability discrimination protection. Different discriminatory practises Covert abuse of power – this is a hidden use of power to discriminate. This can is when someone is being treated in a different way compared to others and not getting the same level of treatment. This can lead to jeopardising one’s health and well being Overt abuse of power – openly using power to discriminate. This will have similar results as with covert abuse of power but if the discriminated person realises their situation, they will be greatly affected and this will have a negative impact on their recovery and may even trigger mental health issues. Prejudice – this is an opinion or idea based on no real knowledge or experience of the truth. Will lead to suspecting and even hatred of another group of people. As a result of discriminatory actions of others individuals may develop physical or mental health problems. Stereotyping – a common, fixed and oversimplified view of a person/group of people. A generalisation and to describe or classify someone. For example, a racial or religious stereotype. (All Muslims are terrorist, as a minority of the followers did something silly, now all Muslims are judged bad due to what the minority has done). Bullying – is using power to intimidate another person. This comes in many forms such as cyber, physical, verbal etc. which all lead to distress and maybe even mental health. Depending on the age of the person that gets bullied it can really affect them. For example; several teenagers have committed suicide because of being bullied. Whereas, some adults may have had to leave their job as they were being bullied or abused. Infringement of rights is when we are not respecting an individual’s rights and not letting them practice their religion or culture. This may then lead an individual feeling devalued and unhappy, which can then affect their health. Scenarios 1. A health care visitor could be discriminative to someone due to them being a different religion and they may think that they will raise their children in a strange or a different way. This could lead them being discriminated and end up being reported, neglected and abused which in turn can cause depression and end in having low self esteem 2. A care profession is making the judgment that Mark is on drugs and doesn’t care about his health and his family so the doctor does not give him a fair  treatment. Now Mark might become reluctant to seek support and his condition worsen and affect his physical health even more as he did not receive the promised support from the health care center. In the worst case, Mark might end up dying. 3. Julia is a Gypsie traveler and she wants to register to a GP surgery service. As everyone is required to provide proof of address for first time registering, Julia is at a disadvantage because she’ll find it difficult to register (no constant address). This is an indirect discrimination against her group of race. Because of their characteristics of race, she and her group will be affected. This can lead to Julia not receiving the help and surgery care that she needed and now Julia can end up distressed as not knowing what to do and her condition may deteriorate. http://www.windowonwoking.org.uk/sites/wavs/wavs_services/hradvisoryservice/HRToolkit/ConInd/ConInd07 class worksheets (A.1 understand the importance of non-discriminatory practice in health and social care – discriminatory and non-discriminatory practice in health and social care) http://www.chaucer.ac.uk/ctsshared/HealthandSocial/Text%20Book%20Chapters/Unit%202/u2%20p34.pdf http://www.faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/diversity-equal-opportunities-and-human-rights/Diversity,%20equal%20opportunities%20and%20human%20rights.pdf http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adviceguide.org.uk%2Findex%2Fequlity_act_2010_overview.pdf&ei=GaZ0VLDINcuqPNKwgYgH&usg=AFQjCNEpr1b2Fqj1-fOJf1Qql26xswNOlA www.nhs.uk