Task 1
Unit 5 – Providing Support & for Individuals in the Community
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This is a report about my experience as a volunteer at a Community Centre in which
it provides many services for different people, moreover for people who have been
referred by Social Services. This assignment brief will be discussing the importance
of promoting equality and diversity for individuals with different needs.
I have reviewed the cases of three people, Nusrat Patel, Alice Fernandez and Martin
Smithers. The pupils have different needs and different disabilities and I will be
reporting to you that diversity and equality have been promoted for them.
Nusrat Patel is a 19-year-old with learning disabilities and epilepsy. She lives with
her main career and provider which is her mum, her father died when she was only
five years old. She attends the community centre on Tuesday and Thursday.
Alice Fernandez is 74 years old with an alcohol problem which affects her every-day
life including budgeting. She has also been prescribed antidepressants which
clashes with her alcohol problem, therefore making her lethargic. Alice has recently
lost her husband due to liver cancer. She attends an over 65s aerobic class at a
centre.
Martin Smithers is 45 years old and he has recently lost his job from the factory and
cannot find a job. This results in him not being able to pay for his rent and household
bills and may be evicted from his rental apartment. However due to the stress, his
chronic skin condition has become worse. He attends a carpentry class at a centre.
As a volunteer I was able to review the different definitions of equality, diversity and
discrimination.
Equality is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities and
the definition for diversity is having a range of people with various racial, ethnic and
cultural backgrounds and various lifestyles, experience, and interests. It is good to
have it promoted everywhere as people will be able to learn about others and be
able to support each other throughout situations. This also means that people will
understand different festivals much better and they will be able to identify
discrimination towards their own peers and be able to act upon it.
Diversity is having a variety or range of differences, in order to value this we need to
respect and value other people's cultures and beliefs. It is good to promote this as it
educates other people and helps others to understand different cultures. Therefore
this helps the carers to understand different individual needs. Alongside, you will
have to respect and value differences such as age, gender and disability. It is a legal
requirement for health and social care providers to respect and value everyone
within the service as well as users of the service.
Discrimination is when there is prejudice against a person or a group of people. The
reasons for this might be age, religion, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, family
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, Task 1
Unit 5 – Providing Support & for Individuals in the Community
structure, sexuality, ability, health (conditions), disability, address, dress or
appearances. This may result in discrimination and treat them differently. However,
there are four types of discrimination.
There is unfair discrimination, this is when a person is treated unfairly compared to
someone else, this may be due to ability, age, gender etc.
Direct discrimination, this is when someone is directly rude to someone else due to
them being different. This is common in bullying.
Indirect discrimination, is when a person may support you and be positive around
you however they do not support your own logical ideas in a ‘jokingly’ manner.
Positive discrimination, is when something is done in someone’s favour such as
hiring more diverse people in order to increase the diversity in the community.
I have read over the case studies and I will say that Nusrat Patel has gotten the best
support overall. The reason for this is due to the faculty focusing on her abilities
rather than disabilities therefore trying to make her happy. As well as letting her
complete her own personal care plan, giving her some independence. The idea of
Makaton sheets seems very helpful to her and the people around her. However, her
social circle should be expanded more to others as well.
She should be able to meet other people with disabilities and without disabilities for
her to be aware of diversity. This could result in her own knowledge to be expanded;
therefore, she would learn about equality too. She would be able to recall that no
matter what you are or who you are you should be able to have access to the same
things as others, she will also be able to know that not everyone can have the same
treatment since not everyone is the same. In addition to this she will be able to speak
up whenever discrimination happens towards her.
This results in equality and diversity being important as this helps Nusrat to
understand other people have different beliefs and needs due to different cultures or
even religions. She would develop a greater knowledge of other people's abilities as
well.
Onto the Alice Fernandez case, there has been discrimination identified throughout
the case. Even though the manager of the aerobics class tried not to discriminate,
they still managed to discriminate. Offering her to go to a ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’
instead of an aerobics class outlines how her drinking problem is bigger than also
trying to be healthy. Aerobics class would be really good for Alice since she doesn’t
get a lot of activities done therefore, she is showing that she tries to keep herself in
shape and be somewhat healthy. However, the support from the manager is a good
outcome as they have helped her through her journey most of the time and had been
playing as her advocate.
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