Discrimination
Learning objective –
to be able to identify types of
discrimination and abuse
Health and Well being
• The effects of attitudes and prejudices on
health and wellbeing of service users when
their needs are unmet can be profound
• The effects of discriminatory practice are
both physical and psychological.
• When prejudiced attitudes affect the ways
individuals behave towards other people is
known as discrimination.
Discrimination
• To discriminate means to show preference,
or to choose
• It is important to understand that
discrimination can be favour of someone or
something as well as against.
• Care work is concerned with anti-
discriminatory practice which means not
treating any person or group more
favourably than another
• Discrimination is defines by Giddens
(2001) as:-
‘activities (or actions) that deny to the
members of a group resources or rewards
which can be obtained by others’.
• Although prejudge is linked to
discrimination, not everyone who is
prejudiced behaved in a discriminatory
way.
• People who discriminate are usually
prejudice but not all prejudge people
discriminate.
Discrimination can occur because of the
differences between people
Examples:-
– Ability
– Appearance
– Age
– Ethnicity
– Culture
– Gender
– Marital status
– Race
– Religion
Physically assaulting
people who are
Devaluing people, different
Treating their needs Making assumptions
of being of less about people
value than others
Verbally abusing
Discriminatory Excluding people
people who
practices from activities
are different
Avoiding people
Excluding people
because they
from opportunities
are different
Negative non-verbal
communication
• Prejudice can lead to discrimination and lack of
respect for individuals, preventing them from having
their needs met.
• In extreme cases this may lead to bullying,
particularly against vulnerable individuals (children
& elderly)
• This can also lead to mistreatment of people, by
those who are in positions of power over them.
• Different types of abuse
– Physical abuse
– Psychological abuse
– Financial abuse
– Sexual abuse
– Neglect
Effects of abuse
• Physical injury
– Leading to feelings of being unsafe
– Intimidation
– Avoidance, devaluing and exclusion
• Access to resources
– Financial
– Social opportunities
• Stress and depression
– Irregular sleep patterns
– Negative though patterns
– High blood pressure
– Comfort eating/drinking
– Increase of stress hormones (adrenaline)
Self-esteem and empowerment
• Uninformed attitudes and prejudices have a
significant impact on an individuals self-
esteem
• They undermine an individuals self esteem
(confidence, self respect, self regard)
• They may feel disempowered – loosing their
right to exercise choice and make decisions
about their life.
• If a service user is not consulted about their
care then they can also feel devalued.
• To be an effective carer, you need to be able
to examine your own attitudes honestly and
work hard to overcome any prejudices
• This is known as anti-discriminatory practice
• Anti-discriminatory practice includes:-
– Open mindedness
– Fairness
– Respect
– Consideration
– Care
Direct Discrimination
• This is when individuals are deliberately
disadvantaging another.
• Unfair discrimination can occur on the
grounds of
– Age, class, colour, creed (faith), culture,
gender, health status, lifestyles, marital status,
mental ability, mental health, offending
background, physical ability, the place of origin,
political beliefs, race, religion, sensory ability,
sexuality, responsibility for dependents or other
special factors.
Indirect discrimination
• This is much less obvious
• This occurs when certain conditions are in
place that demonstrates preference for
some people over others.
– Not providing toilet facilities that children or
disabled can use
– Employing only males or females
Attitudes and prejudices summary
• As care workers we need to be aware that we will be
part of the service users socialisation process and
can influence positive or negative attitudes.
• A positive, respectful and considerate approach can
improve the rate of recovery fro illness and can
enable people to higher quality of life
• Stereotypical thinking is apparent to service users,
whether they are consciously demonstrated, and will
affect on the emotional and physical health of those
they care for.
• We have a responsibility to examine our own views
and be open-minded if we are to deliver high quality
anti-discriminatory practice