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Unit 5 Aim A
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Unit 5 Aim A - Meeting individuals care and support needs
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Level 3 Unit 5 Assignment: Meeting Individual Care and Support NeedsIn recent years, there has been a significant development towards meeting individual care and
support needs. (Whitlatch & Orsulic-Jeras, 2018) This report will highlight how anti- discriminatory
practice has been achieved for specific individuals with different needs. It will analyse and evaluate
situations with two case studies, Valerie and Billy, and the values and skills needed to care for and
support others. Valerie’s case study identifies that she has been admitted to the community hospital
following a surgery she had for her appendix, which burst before she could reach the hospital. As she
is obese, professionals found it complicated. She also has a hearing impairment which has not been
assessed so no support has been given to her. She has dietary needs of being a vegetarian. Billy’s
case study states that he was also admitted to the community hospital due to having an asthma
attack. He has been homeless because of an argument between him and his mother’s partner, he
has been homeless since this incident. Billy has a visual impairment and has stomach pains. He has
no where to go as his mother has changed the locks on the doors and refuses to visit him.
P1. Explain the importance of promoting equality and diversity for individuals with different
needs.
Equality is ensuring that individuals are treated fairly and equally specifically to their own needs,
including areas of status, race, gender, class, religion etc. It also is making sure that people are being
treated no less favourably or being at a disadvantage. According to the government (Legislation.gov)
‘The Equality Act 2010’ legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and wider
society. ‘The aim of the act is to harmonise discriminatory laws, and to strengthen the law to support
progress on equality.’ (Equality Act 2010) An example of equality in a health and social care setting
could be that professionals consider the service users different eating habits, praying regimes and if
they would like a doctor of a particular gender. Everyone has the right to register with a doctor, but
a chronically ill patient may need more of the doctor’s time compared to a patient with a broken
arm. Every human is unique. Diversity is recognising and respecting an individual’s differences. (P
Sharma, 2021) It is also appreciating each individuals own values, beliefs, lifestyle and treating them
with respect.
Discrimination is when someone treats an individual unfairly because they have different
characteristics. This could be based on their skin colour, class, status, sexuality, cognitive ability,
health etc. It happens when someone has a strong negative feeling towards a specific characteristic.
This is also known as prejudice. (Health and social care textbook extract – unit 5)
There are four types of discrimination, these include,
Direct Discrimination
Indirect Discrimination
Unfair Discrimination
Positive Discrimination
Direct discrimination is when someone is treated less favourably than someone else because of a
certain characteristic. For example, when someone who is overweight is called negative names. This
form of discrimination is easy to prove as its either heard or witnessed by other people. However
indirect discrimination is harder to prove. Indirect discrimination is when a health care worker has a
rule or policy that applies to all of their patients, but they have a worse effect on some people than
others because of who they are. Unfair discrimination is when an individual is treated unfairly
compared to another person such as being withheld from something, or they have reduced their
opportunities. For example, paying lower wages to an employee because he/she has a different
, characteristic than you. Positive discrimination is when a decision is made in a person’s favour
because of a different characteristic. For example, when a film agency seeks to hire someone with
blonde hair and slim build because they are the characteristics of the character they are trying to
pursue.
In a health and social care setting, it is important for health professionals to promote equality to
meet every person’s needs because the service user should feel like they are being treated with the
respect that they deserve to prevent discrimination. To promote diversity, health professionals
should follow a legislation, such as the Equality and Diversity policy. Every person should have access
to the care and support that they need despite of their race, culture etc. This will avoid
discrimination and will make the individual feel valued and respected, which will lead to a positive
attitude. Health and social care professionals can promote equality and diversity in the workplace by
creating a welcoming environment, they should also provide all care workers with a policy to ensure
that they have a basic and a better understanding of equality and diversity, this will prevent
discrimination towards individuals.
Valerie has a hearing impairment but faces discrimination as we are told in the case study that she
hasn’t been assessed for this; therefore, she is not receiving the care and support that she needs to
meet her individual needs. Professionals should assess this and provide her with an audiologist if
required. As she has never been assessed for this, it shows lack of equality as she has not been given
equal opportunities as others to improve her hearing. Since Valerie struggles with obesity, health
care professionals will need to not discriminate her for this. Instead, they need to be honest with her
about why she will need to lose weight, change her lifestyle and give her advice about how she can
do this too. They must be aware of Valerie’s dietary needs of her being a vegetarian. This explains
that in the health and social care setting, professionals should accept the service users’ decisions and
so that they have a freedom of choice. It is important to so for Valerie because we want her to feel
valued and respected, this may help to increase her self-esteem which will reduce depression.
Health care workers should evaluate and assess these needs and support her. For example, they can
provide her with a healthy vegetarian option on her diet so that discrimination is prevented, and
diversity is promoted. As in Billy’s case, Billy is homeless due to having arguments with his mother,
due to this she has changed the locks on the doors and refuses to see him. Billy has not been treated
equally by his mother which may feel like he isn’t good enough. Billy also has a visual impairment, so
he is already struggling besides his issues with his mother, this may cause him to feel even worse.
Being in the living situation that he is in, it can cause him to feel unmotivated meaning he may not
make the effort with getting help from health care professionals. He may find it difficult to access
healthcare services, due to him being homeless. It is important to protect all individuals and protect
their rights so each person can have equal opportunities in their lifetime.
The impact of not promoting equality, diversity and discrimination would have a negative influence
on any individual. It can result in the person feeling left out and disrespected. The person may feel
like you’re not worth their time. The individual is most likely to be going through a traumatic time
and if the health care professional is not supporting their individual needs it could cause more stress
an make them more vulnerable. For example, if the health care professional was not respectful
towards Valerie’s mental health issues, due to her parents dying when she was six, it could cause her
to feel upset and could lead to further issues. This is because she would feel like there is no one
there to support her – no matter what an individual is going through, they should still be treated
with dignity and treated like any other individual. Discrimination makes an individual feel less than a
human. When people feel unvalued by others, their self-esteem decreases. (BBC Bitesize- Prejudice
and Discrimination) This can have a lot of impact on a person. There are many possible effects of not
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