Kisenyi Mukalere
10/3/23
Unit 5: Task 1 - Ethical Care
This report evaluates and discusses the success of the promotion of anti-
discriminatory practice when it comes to specific individuals with differing
needs. This report also focuses on the justifications of different strategies and
techniques that are used to overcome ethical issues and challenges that are
experienced by individuals with differing needs through planning and care
provision.
Promoting anti-discriminatory practice for specific individuals with different
needs in health and social care can be implemented in a myriad of ways. This
can be done through promoting equality and diversity, preventing
discrimination and ensuring professionals have the skills and attributes to
care for, build relationships and establish trust with individuals with different
needs.
In health and social care, equality means providing individuals with the same
opportunities to access the services that they need (Bilingham et al., 2015). This
promotes and discriminatory practice as equality also means providing a
consistent quality of care that meets a service user’s needs. Diversity means
including a variety of different people such as people from different ethnic
backgrounds. The promotion of equality and diversity helps to prevent
discrimination. Prevention of discrimination is important because the effects
of discrimination on service users can be very harmful, for example, service
users may suffer from lowered self-esteem, depression, stress, withdrawal from
social activities and places, anxiety and a reduced probability of seeking
future help and support.
Professionals having certain skills and attributes can promote equality and
diversity and therefore anti-discriminatory practice. For example,
professionals should have empathy as it will allow them to put themselves in
the shoes of service users to get a better understanding of their needs and to
act compassionately towards them, and therefore have a more holistic
approach when it comes to care provision. Professionals should also be open-
minded as to not judge service users and instead learn from them in order to
provide the best and most competent care possible. Good communication
skills are vital for professionals to be able to provide and receive information
from service users which again helps professionals to be able to provide the
best care possible. Building relationships and trust with service users as a
professional can help professionals to better promote diversity and equality,
and anti-discriminatory practice as it allows room for better communication
between professionals and service users (Bilingham et al., 2015).
There are different theories of empathy that can help professionals to build
relationships and establish a level of trust with their service users. These
theories explain how empathy works from a psychological standpoint, they
, take into account how well individuals are able to engage with the world
surrounding them through the usage of their emotions and also to what
extent they are able to express their emotions with others around them. One
theory was created by a German philosopher named Max Scheler, his theory
stated that objects should not just be considered from an objective
standpoint and instead, it is important to have subjective opinions about
‘objects’ in order to be able to truly empathise as this would allow an
individual to better perceive and understand. Another German philosopher
called Johannes Volkelt came up with a different theory of empathy which
states that something can only truly be understood if an individual's identity
and a particular ‘object’ become one so that a specified ‘object’ can be felt by
another individual, thus enabling the ability to better empathise (Bilingham et
al., 2015).
The attachment and emotional resilience theory was created by John Bowlby,
a British psychologist. Bowlby’s theory detailed how important it is to have a
specific adult in which a child can form a close bond with in order to heighten
a child’s ability to form future relationships and bond with others. Bowlby also
stated that secure attachments between child and carer are formed when a
child is born into a safe and stable environment, and as a result of this are
more likely to be resilient throughout their life which will better enable them to
overcome challenges. Bowlby also stated that having a secure attachment will
allow a child to be more confident, trusting of others and independent. He
predicted that a child with a secure attachment will pursue more relationships
with others and understand that they are loved and can depend on others
(Bilingham et al., 2015).
Case study 1, Valerie B. is 24 years old and struggles with body image issues,
mental health problems that started from a young age as a result of her
parents dying when she was 6 years of age, bullying and low self-esteem.
Valerie is unemployed and follows a vegetarian diet. She does not understand
why she should make changes to her lifestyle to manage her weight. She also
has an issue with her hearing but has not been formally assessed and
subsequently has not received any support. Valerie has recently had surgery
for her appendix, she remains in a community hospital. She has since become
hesitant to go home as she fears being bullied again.
Promoting equality is important for Valerie as she suffers from low self-esteem
and is also being bullied. One way equality could be promoted is through
empowerment of Valerie. For example, this can be done through doctors and
nurses providing Valerie with information on obesity and its effects on health,
this would give her the tools to make informed decisions, encouraging her to
get involved in her own treatment plan. However, this may not always be
effective as it also relies on Valerie’s cooperation which cannot be consistently
guaranteed due to her long term mental health problems which may cause
the level of trust she has for the doctors and nurses to fluctuate. Despite this,
empowerment is still important because Valerie may then feel as though her
opinions have an impact and therefore have more worth, raising her self-
esteem. Prevention of discrimination is important because, if nurses fail to