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...