Unit 5: Meeting individual care and support needs
Assignment 1: Ethical care
Biography
VALERIE B.
DOB: 14/06/1995 (24 years old)
Address: 1 Spon Lane, West Bromwich B70 6AW
GP Surgery: Dr Heider
Medical History: Hearing impairment since birth, parents died when she was 6 years old. After their
death, she began having mental health problems. She had a surgery for her appendix, she also
became obese.
Current Medication: Antidepressants for stress and anxiety. Sertraline, Citalopram, Antibiotics,
Painkillers for appendix.
Religious Needs: N/A
Dietary Requirements: Vegetarian, ‘low-fat’ diet.
Allergies: N/A
Presenting Issue: Appendix burst, Mental health problems, hearing impairment and obesity.
Support Required: support with shopping and with other tasks that require going out.
AISHA H.
DOB: 17/10/1937 (82 years old)
Address: 40 Fountain Road, Birmingham B17 8NR
GP Surgery: Dr Wallis
Medical History: Vascular dementia, pneumonia (on recovery), incontinent.
Current Medication: Antibiotics, painkillers, like paracetamol for pain relief and reduce fever, for
pneumonia.
Religious Needs: Buddhist. Therefore, prayer/worship time and space.
Dietary Requirements: Vegetarian/ might eat pork, chicken, fish but NOT beef.
Allergies: grass and tree pollen, cats and nuts.
Presenting Issue: vascular dementia, incontinence.
Support Required: toileting, cooking, shopping, dressing, washing, cleaning.
Equality and Diversity
Equality is ensuring individuals or groups of individuals are treated fairly and equally and no less
favourably, specific to their needs, including areas of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual
orientation and age and that “every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their
lives and talents.” (High Speed Training, 2016) This means that, for example, no matter what
disability a person has, they have the right to be considered on fulfilling their dreams and desires
with the support they need such as completing their education and achieving their future goals or
providing the relevant requirements for their spiritual needs. Eventually, there are laws in place like
The Equality Act 2012 because, to follow the law, Health and Social Care settings should have
equality policies to ensure that everyone is treated equally. It is important to promote equality to
meet every person’s needs because, they should feel they are equal and feel like they are treated
with the dignity and respect they deserve, preventing discrimination. This is because, in some health
and social care settings, people may be discriminating against a patient involuntarily, especially if the
adult is vulnerable because of their age, health or disability therefore, having an awareness of the
potential barriers and how to remove them is crucial.
,Unit 5: Meeting individual care and support needs
Assignment 1: Ethical care
Diversity is about recognising that everyone is different in some way, it also means valuing and
respecting the differences between people such as “values, beliefs, cultures and lifestyles with
respect” (High Speed Training, 2016). Professionals must consider every individual’s matter in their
life in order to treat them with dignity and respect for example, they should consider diversity for
support when creating a service user’s individual health and care plan to meet their needs, celebrate
their differences. To promote diversity in health and social care setting, staff members should follow
legislation, principles and practices such as the Equality and Diversity policy. It is also important to
promote diversity because, every person should have access to the care and support that they need
despite of their circumstances. This also avoids any practice of discrimination and makes the
individuals feel valued, respected, treated with dignity and therefore they will have a positive
attitude.
Since Valerie is still in the community hospital, it is important that health professionals promote
equality and diversity for her. Because she’s vegetarian, the community hospital provides her meals
that are for vegetarians and, since she’s obese and just had a surgery for her appendix, the dietitian
should consider on giving her a specific vegetarian diet. This explains that in the health and social
care settings professionals should promote equality and diversity because the service users have the
freedom for choice and for health and they should respect and accept their differences and treat
their health conditions taking the service users’ choices in account. It’s very important to promote
equality and diversity for Valerie because she may start to feel valued and respected with dignity
which may help to increase her self-esteem and self-confidence.
As in Aisha’s case, who was admitted to the community hospital to recover from pneumonia should
be promoted with equality and diversity by the health professionals. Since she has vascular
dementia and may forget about her faith beliefs, the health professionals have the duty to
acknowledge her diet whether it’s vegetarian or beef-free, and they should provide an advocate who
can speak on her behalf because her thoughts and opinions are very important when creating any
care plan. This shows that whether the service user has neurological illnesses and may suffer from
memory-loss, they still have the right for choice and right for speech which should be respected.
Promoting equality and diversity for Aisha is important because she doesn’t experience
discriminatory practice and is empowered by the professionals to make the right decisions with the
support of an advocate. (London School of Economics, 2012)
Not being promoted with equality and diversity can have a very negative impact on both Valerie and
Aisha. This can result as a discriminatory practice and both of them can experience very stressful and
traumatic time at the community hospital as they are alone and vulnerable to fight against the
health professionals who may not be doing their job as it should be done. For example, Valerie has a
hearing impairment and hasn’t been assessed for any support of her hearing. This means that her
hearing impairment was neglected and this makes her struggle with getting involved in activities or
for meetings with the professionals. The feeling of having hearing impairment at her young age can
lead to have low self-concept and may not feel included because she cannot communicate without
hearing the professionals therefore, it can lead to depression because, there is no one to support her
by providing hearing aids. If health professionals didn’t clean and change Aisha’s clothes because of
her incontinence, that results to not promoting equality and diversity because, no matter what
illness a service user develops they should be respected with dignity and gently.
Discrimination
discrimination is treating a person or particular group of people differently, especially in a worse way
from the way in which you treat other people based on their skin colour, sex, sexuality, culture,
beliefs, ability, health, family structure etc (Cambridge Dictionary, 2019). It occurs when someone
has a feeling against a person or a group of people unreasonably which is also called prejudice.
, Unit 5: Meeting individual care and support needs
Assignment 1: Ethical care
There are four types of discrimination: Unfair discrimination, Direct discrimination, Indirect
discrimination and Positive discrimination.
Unfair discrimination is when an individual is treated unfairly compared to another individual such as
being withheld from something or having reduced opportunities. For example, when a person is not
considered for a job because of their age and being labelled as ‘too old’ or ‘too young’ than another
candidate, despite having the same qualifications and experience.
Direct discrimination is when someone is rude, hostile or offensive to an individual because they can
see them as being ‘different’. For example, when someone who is overweight is called by names.
This form of discrimination is easy to prove because it is heard or witnessed by other people. This is
when someone treats you differently and worse than someone else for certain reasons like age,
disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual
orientation. These are called ‘Protected Characteristics’ from the Equality Act 2010 because, a
person is protected under the Equality Act 2010 from these types of discrimination. (Equality and
Human Rights Commission, 2019)
Indirect discrimination is when a healthcare or care provider has a practice, policy or rule which
applies to all their patients and clients, but they have a worse effect on some people than others
because of who they are. For example, when a job place requires a minimum height for a job where
“height is not relevant to carry out the role”. Such a requirement would likely discriminate against
women, and some minority ethnic groups, as they are generally shorter than men. In fact, it is
harder to prove and more difficult to spot than direct discrimination. (University of Cambridge, 2019)
Positive Discrimination is when a decision is made in a person’s favour because there is something
different about them, which is still unlawful. For example, an employer recruits a person because
they have a relevant protected characteristic rather than because they are the best candidate to the
role and its unlawful because they recruit or promote a “specific number or proportion of people
with a particular protected characteristic. This can happen when an advertising agency hires a
person who has red hair and fair skin because they are to play the part of the sister of someone who
has these characteristics.
Importance of preventing discrimination
It is crucial to prevent discrimination, so that everyone receives a service of equal quality, which
meets their personal needs. For example, in a health care setting, professionals should respond to
the individual needs of each patient during healthcare activities and recognise that these needs vary
due to that their protected characteristics like their religious beliefs. (iMedPub, 2019) This type of
practice promotes a culture that values equality, diversity and dignity. Care workers need to
understand the importance of avoiding discriminatory language and behaviour in order to avoid the
effects of discrimination on service users like: depression and anxiety, loss of self-esteem, stress, loss
of confidence, fear to seek support and treatment, feeling unable to work, mental illness triggered
by stress, injury and death, living in fear of others, losing sense of who you are and withdrawal from
social activities.
The Equality Act 2010 is the “Government’s new law to make sure all people are treated fairly” and
it became law when “Parliament agreed it was right” (Government Equality Office, 2019). It legally
protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It “replaced previous
anti-discrimination laws with a single Act”, making the law easier to understand and strengthening
protection in some situations. The Equality Act 2010 also “sets out the different ways in which it’s
unlawful to treat someone” and protects people from discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age,
gender reassignment, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership,
pregnancy and maternity. (Gov.UK, 2015)
There are two types of discrimination which are outlawed by the Equality Act: Direct discrimination,
