Hi Sarah
It all sounds so familiar!
In the early nineties when I first suggested that one way
forward to better and more culturally competent care was to have a workforce
that more nearly reflected the community it served, there were ructions!
People thought I meant 'black on black' care and many staff felt attacked and
hastened to inform me that they 'provided exactly the same care to
everyone'! This was exactly my point and led to another of my
'sayings': "To treat me equally, you might have to treat me
differently."
I developed Positively Diverse to give people a structural
framework to use to define the problems and to come up with solutions and
interventions which focused on those problems. This was to get away from
implementing someone else's solutions in the wrong environment. One size
does definitely not fit all!
Impact Assessment is key to moving forward, I
believe. I have developed a framework for this, which is included in the
DES and GES guidance that I have done for the NHS, available online as well as
in hard copy.
Creating a disability equality scheme a
practical guide for the NHS
Creating a Gender Equality Scheme: A
practical guide for the NHS
There is also a lot of helpful stuff around the difference
between equal ops and diversity and about equality, equity and
outcomes.
Would be very interested in doing some work to make things
more clear-cut for workers in the area.
Regards
Barbara Burford
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 11:49
AM
Subject: tackling health inequality -
promoting equality: what's the difference?
Greetings
Sorry for multiple postings but I am trying to put
together some ideas
in a short accessible/ practical briefing or Q&A on
the differences and
similarities between concepts and action around
tackling health
inequalities and promoting equality to help both policy and
NHS people
get their heads round the questions and wondered if people had
thoughts.
Essentially I come across some confusion amongst some of
my public
health (and other) colleagues in PCTs and in policy development,
who as
far as I can tell (but I am probably being a bit simplistic) tend
to
think that what they do to tackle health inequalities has the
objective
of achieving equality (or equity... another whole discussion
point) and
therefore they are unclear how promoting equality is diferent
and what
the various equality duties mean for them in addition to what they
do
already.
I am sure one aspect is that it is unusual as far
as I can see (apart
from honourable exceptions such as James Nazroo and
colleagues) for the
influence of discrimination on health to be examined
rigorously. People
do study barriers to accessing health services but
do not seem as part
of that to consider for instance cultural stereotyping
by staff and
things like lack of interpreting services are not seen as
discriminatory
let alone institutionally racist. In fact I think
probably what
discrimination actually is may be difficult for (public
health) people
to pin down and I think some people in the NHS think that we
are all so
nice and we treat everyone equally (hah!) so what's it got to do
with
us?
One example of the confusion (but this time seeing
the agendas as
entirely separate) in our PCT public health has been asked
to lead on
the development of an equity strategy and HR have got the lead
for a
single equality scheme but apparently little senior level
discussion
about possible synergy.
I also actually do have in
my sights policy development at a higher
level (yes, Dept Health) and would
like to answer questions such as
"doesn't the Choosing Health white paper
do that (promote equality)?"
and "what does the equality agenda have to do
with us (PH policy
people)?"
Sooo after this longwinded introduction
does anyone understand what I
am talking about and want to put their oar
in/ direct me to useful work?
Needless to say I will share what I
come up with and ensure that the
experience and knowledge of this e-group
is reflected and acknowledged
in what I produce and of course people will
be able to use and adapt it
for their own purposes.
Thanks very
much!
Sarah
Sarah Corlett
Consultant in Public Health
Lambeth Primary Care Trust
1 Lower Marsh
London, SE1 7NT
Tel: 020
7716 7097
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