Ethnic Diversity in Health and Social Care: Challenges and Importance Case Study

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Introduction - Promoting Ethnic Diversity in Health and Social Care

The report will explain the importance of ethnic diversity in Health and social care. The primary focus of this report is to introduce the effectiveness of race and culture in an organization. The study will also explain the issues created by racism and Ethnicity. This report will help to spread awareness about this critical topic. Mainly the requirements of equality and diversity in the field of Health and Social care are enlightened here.

1 Concept of Race and Ethnicity

1.1Biological as opposed to the cultural basis for differentiating the groups

The biological basis of differentiating is how individuals are differentiated using genetics or gender. People are classified into many societies using racial categories. This racial category may or may not be biologically meaningful. According to some research, racial and ethnic groups have genetic differences. Social and Biological Sciences have explained that race is not a variation of human genes. It is entirely a social thing. Society has differentiated into groups on a cultural basis (Marchenko et al.,2019). Depending on values and beliefs, the culture is differentiated. Although, biologically differentiating is also somehow related to this cultural differentiation.

This differentiation creates distinguishable characteristics of different social groups. They are even differentiated depending on their skin colour, family and upbringing. This can be considered the biological differentiation of groups (Jackson et al.,2019). In an organization, both biological and cultural differentiations occur, and sometimes, that differentiation causes many conflicts. Most of the time, the older employee and the new entrants have different opinions. These cause diversity in the workplace and can hamper the workplace's work culture and performance. In families, this stratification is also seen. A fair-skin-coloured person is often considered beautiful while a dark-skin coloured person is judged. Apart from this cultural differentiation also occurs in families too. Some of the family members like to stay together while some of them appreciate isolation.

1.2Race and Ethnicity

Race and Ethnicity both can be considered social construction. Although, prior, it was believed that race is a biological thing and depends on the texture or skin color, hair type, or hair color of individuals. Ethnicity is mainly based on culture. Ethnicity is acquired by people who influence the society they belong (Espinosa et al.,2019). However, eventually, some research proved that both race and Ethnicity are a social construction.

Race: The phenotypical characteristics of a human group is defined as race. It classifies human beings based on their distinguishable characteristics such as skin colour and types. All these physical traits are considered identical. Three human races are Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Negroid. The people in the society are sometimes treated and judged based on their race. Racism is often responsible for conflicts and differences in opinions in the workplace.

Ethnicity: On the contrary, Ethnicity is based on the culture, beliefs, practices, and values of a particular community. Religion, material culture, language, and so on can be considered components of Ethnicity (Cheng et al.,2019). Ethnicity helps build a strong connection and bond between a group of people. They can share and adopt each other’s values and opinions. On the other hand, it is also responsible for conflicts in the workplace or society.

1.3Differentiating the Cultural and Institutional Racism

Cultural Racism: Cultural racism is defined as discrimination based on cultural pReferences. This racism can be based on both racial and ethnic groups. In simple terms, cultural discrimination or racism claims that one group is superior to the other (Abbas,2019). They even claim that the inferior (according to one group) group does not have any right to stay in the same society as the “superior” group. Professor Blaut stated in his “The Theory of Cultural Racism” that during the 18^th century, Europeans and Americans used religious basis to prove their thoughts and arguments correct and superior.

Mcpherson Report: The failure of the Metropolitan police investigation regarding Stephen Lawrence’s murder was due to the important factor of racism (31st July 1997). According to this report, “institutional” and “individual” racism both are responsible for the incident. “A failure of leadership” is also responsible for the same. This report is very essential as it stated that every organisation should record and investigate every recorded racism.

Institutional Racism: Institutional racism is the organization's discriminative role through its guidelines, rules, and regulations. Even some organizations follow their traditions of discrimination. In other words, the strict guidelines made by the higher authorities of an institute made the employees encourage racism (Bourke et al.,2018). Some groups of people belonging to specific religions or cultures are often rejected from a particular institution. This is a clear example of institutional racism. According to Shirley Better, institutional racism negatively influences Americans' work culture. Society is embedded with inequality and racism. Many veterans were not provided with disability pensions in the late 1800s and early 1900s by the Union Army. In the health care department, institutional racism is quite common.

The difference between Cultural and Institutional Racism: As mentioned earlier, cultural discrimination is mainly based on society and its people. Other cultural groups in society judge them. However, in the case of institutional racism, the organization itself makes strict guidelines to follow the racism. In 2018, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published a report named “Is Britain Fairer? 2018”. The report covers all the sections related to human rights and equality and the nation’s performance in these two sections (Song,2018). Organizations still could not get rid of institutional racism. Cultural racism is also there in society. Education, living standards, work-life, and so on are influenced by racism.

For example, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Black African people are more likely to go through discrimination in case of education. In contrast, Indian and Chinese are privileged to access better education. Resulting in the last-mentioned group facing poverty. In health and social care, one group of people get all the facilities, whereas other groups are deprived of all the facilities (Murray-Johnson,2019). BBC presenter Naga Munchetty traveled and tried to find out the causes and solutions to race and racism across the U.K. The topic of racism arises due to the killing of George Floyd in Britain. All these facts from the early days have greatly influenced many organizations.

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2 The issues surrounding ethnic minorities and social disadvantages within Health and Social Care

2.1 Evaluation of the factors that influence Ethnic Disadvantages within Health and Social care

Racial and ethnic disparities care differences are location changes, lack of essential services, healthcare insurance, communication problems between patient and physician, communication differences, physician demonizing, and shortage of doctors. Ethnic comes from many different forms of diversity, which are culturally and environmentally relevant in the U.K. However, such Ethnicity, culture, language, and geography on an individual's personality and how others see them. People can identify with ethnic communities at several levels. They can identify themselves as British, Indian, Punjabi, and Glaswegian at different times and circumstances. The Britain performing report has described equality and human rights like education, health, work, participation in the community, and justice and security (Equalityhumanrights.com, 2022).

The issues of the social disadvantages within the health and social care sector;

Social disadvantages:

Social disadvantage has determined several dimensions of social positions, financial status, education, and other backgrounds.
The social disadvantages refer to the people, who have insufficient money for life, and do not feel able to afford schooling and training for their kids. In addition, they do not feed their family members due to low income, and also they do not live in the proper place and others.
Poor is an unfavorable circumstance that affects the life of individuals, and the disadvantage of such people and children reveals obstacles within the route of their progress and development. Due to social disadvantages, people can still not deal with the pressure and changing environments.
One of the most significant consequences of social disadvantage is the loss of literacy skills among those persons; there is a lack of unity between the academic system and the lifestyles of the minority communities.

Ethnic disadvantages:

The concept that health outcomes are hugely on Race, Ethnicity, and culture is not unique. Despite numerous advancements throughout liberties and the decreasing differences in mortality rates between disadvantaged areas, health disparities across ethnic communities continue to be a far-reaching issue generally (Yaya et al., 2020).
Ethnic minorities can face challenges in obtaining proper healthcare in the U.K. Alongside, ethnic identity outcomes from several aspects of distinction that are also economically and morally significant in the U.K. (parliament. the U.K., 2022)
In the U.K., in most other places, the development of different ethnic communities and language groupings within each cultural element and health profile provides a problematic issue for health managers and planners regarding ensuring access.
In the 2001 census, almost half of 45 % of the minority ethnic population within the London area when making up 29% of the population.

Furthermore, as per the Britain fairer 2018 report, "The Equality and Human Rights Commission" might help recognize the nation's status, and it has looked at all areas of life. A study has figured out that since 2015/2016, Pakistan, 44.3%, Bangladesh, 48.8%, Black Africa, 44.9%, live the poor people (parliament. The U.K., (2022). Poor has altered much, and for children, it has grown; it is highly prevalent among disabled people and several ethnicities. In accord with the 2015 report, UK-wide reforms to income and tax after 2010 remain to have a significant effect on the poorest in the community (Equalityhumanrights.com, 2022).

Conclusion

The above study explained the concept of Race and Ethnicity thoroughly. It also discussed the difference between Ethnicity and race. In society, both race and ethnic discrimination are seen. The study mentioned some historical examples of racism to explain that the process of discrimination has been occurring in past years. Institutional and cultural racism and their difference are also explained in this report thoroughly. The ethnic disadvantages and the factors contributing to them are also enlightened.