Unit 2 Equlity, Diversity and Rights Essay Example for Free

Unit 2 Equlity, Diversity and Rights Essay Discriminatory practice is infringement of rights. This means that you are not respecting individual’s rights or beliefs. (Mills, 2013) There are many ways that people can discriminate against others. Discrimination can involve making a judgement on someone; whether it be for race, gender, sexuality or disability. Discrimination is an unfair act based on prejudice. Sexuality: There are many different sexualities. These include straight, lesbian, gay and bi sexual. A service provider may discriminate against a service user’s sexuality. If a gay, elderly man in a care home needs to be washed, a male member of staff might refuse to do this because it may make him feel uncomfortable knowing the man’s sexuality. This would be seen as discriminatory practice. Disability: Many care homes have service users that may have a form of disability. This can be anywhere from a learning disability, to a physical disability. Some service providers may not approach the service user (if they have a disability) to inform them something, they might just approach the nurse/carer beside them. Service providers would do this because they wouldn’t know if the service user would be able to understand. This would be discriminatory practice. Age: In a Health and Social care environment, only people under a certain age may be allowed on day trips. This would be done and the activity could involve too much physical strength and ability for the elderly service user. This would be seen as discrimination to the elderly. Social class: In a health and social care setting, people may be discriminated against due to their social class. A service user may be treated with more respect because of their higher social c lass than someone who has a low social class. For an example, someone who was very successful in life may be treated with more respect be seen as more important than others. This would be discrimination against the elderly. Religion: In a caring and social environment, religion should always be accepted and respected. In some cases it is not. Because of stereotyping, a care/social worker may refuse to deal with a service user because of their religion. For example, if a service user is muslin, a service provider may refuse to deal with them, purely because of their religious beliefs. This would be seeing as a discriminatory practice. Describe the potential effects of discriminatory practice on those who used health or social care services All of the discriminatory practises stated above would have a huge, negative impact on the service users. Sexuality: Social workers may not recommended a foster family to foster children if they are a gay couple. There would be no reasonable excuse for this act. This would be discrimination against the couple. It is likely that this would strongly affect the couple and possibly ruin their self-esteem and their confidence. Disability: In the example stated before, by not approaching the service user directly, it is indicating that you think the service user is unable to respond to what you are saying. This is discriminatory practise. This could leave the service user feeling depressed, isolated and ignored. Age: In the example used previously, if you are leaving people over a certain age out of an activity, this is limiting them to what they can do. You are leaving them out of an activity, likely to leave them feeling lonely. This is unfair and discriminatory practice. Therefore the service user may end up feeling isolated (because they aren’t involved in the group) and lose self-confidence which could affect other areas of their life. Social class: An example of someone with a low social class feeling isolated would be a former prisoner who has now moved into a care home. Service providers may assume the worse of him and therefore treat this service user with little respect. This may cause the service user to become isolated. Religion: Another discriminatory practice would be sex. If a Muslim lady was in a care home, they could be discriminated against by insisting that they would have to be dealt with by a male service provider. Another would be to offer a menu with the main meat on the dishes being pork as it is against the Muslim belief to eat pork. This would not be respecting their religious beliefs and therefore would be discriminatory practic e. This could cause the service user to suffer low self-esteem (which means that someone is losing their self-worth and self-esteem), humiliation, and worthlessness. Asses the effects on those using the services of three different discriminatory practices in health and social care settings Sexuality: If a homosexual couple were recommended to not foster children, and this did cause them to lose confidence in adopting, it could lead to depression and anxiety at their status in society. They may then feel it necessary to hide their sexual orientation. This could then make them feel unworthy in life which could lead to severe depression. Social class: If a former prisoner in the care home did feel isolated, it wouldn’t be surprising if they may rarely join into group activates. This would ultimately lower their self-confidence and mean that they would withdraw more over time. If this was to happen, they could find themselves being depressed and having very low self-esteem. Religion: If a Muslim woman was forced to be treated by a male doctor, even after asking not to be, she would be unable to use the service, purely because of her religious beliefs. This would be discriminatory practice. She would then feel humiliated, which would ruin her self-confidence. If this happened then she may not have the confidence to use the health service again which could end up with serious consequences.