Working with Diverse People.
1. In
at least two paragraphs describe what is meant by the term diverse?
2. How do
our own individual values and beliefs impact on how we view others? Explain in at
least two paragraphs.
- Reflect on a particular value that you hold dear. How might this value/belief cause conflict with another? Explain the conflict and what you could do to avoid/minimise it. (Note: Refer to the learner guide on page 8 for further insight If required.)
- In addition to ethnicity or
race, please list three other categories of diversity – include examples of
both social and cultural diversity in your responses.
- When working in the health
sector, explain why it is so important for staff to have an understanding of, and
respect for, diversity? Consider this in the context of the Charter of
Healthcare Rights.
- List four examples of significant events that can affect a
person’s perspectives, values and beliefs and potentially lead them to form
judgements (either positive or negative) about other individuals.
- In your workplace or classroom, discuss your own social and/or cultural background with someone from a different social and/or cultural background. In at least half a page outline your learnings from this discussion specifically identifying one major area of difference and one area of similarity. Also include details of a festival / holiday or celebratory event from the other culture and its background and meaning. Once you have completed your half page report, reflect on and answer the following questions:
a) How did you ensure you were culturally sensitive when approaching your
colleague to have this discussion?
b) How could undertaking such activities help to
address unconscious bias in individuals? Explain.
- Your Manager has asked you
to assist with improving relationships between a diverse group of team members
within your clinic. Amongst the workforce there is an individual who has
identified as a member of the LGBTQI community, a woman (aged 69), a male
recently arrived from Afghanistan, a young receptionist heavily tattooed and
with facial piercings, and a woman of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
descent.
a) What are some specific activities you
could undertake to strengthen these diverse
relationships? List at least two.
b) Develop a promotional flyer to inform
staff of the activities. Ensure the
communication is
culturally
respectful and suitable for a diverse audience. (Include this flyer in your assessment
submission).
- Undertake
research and in at least half a page explain the social, political, economic
and healthcare issues (in particular the barriers to accessing services) affecting
the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people? Include how Western
systems and structures have impacted on the groups engagement with services.
- Joseph
is a 20 year old Medical Receptionist working in a GP Clinic. He is still looking
around at his colleagues who he was chatting with, as he tells an elderly gentlemen arriving
for his appointment to ‘take a seat’. When he turns to the front he notices the man has not
moved, and also notices the gentleman has hearing aids.
- How
should Joseph now respond to sensitively resolve this issue?
- What
are three ways you can communicate effectively with patients who may have
vision, hearing, or cognitive difficulties due to age or illness?
- Think about these ways to communicate. Would they also work for people with English as a second language (ESL)? If yes, explain why. If no, why not.
- How
should Joseph now respond to sensitively resolve this issue?
- Please
list at least two different legislations that exist in Australia to protect our
diverse community?
- In Victoria, under which Act (provide the official name and date) does it state that it is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of:
| Age | Breastfeeding | Carer status |
| Disability | Employment activity | Gender Identity |
| Industrial activity | Lawful sexual activity | Marital status |
| Parental status | Physical features | Political belief or activity |
| Pregnancy | Race (including colour, nationally, ethnicity and ethnic origin) | Religious belief or activity |
| Sex | Sexual orientation | Expunged homosexual conviction |
| Personal association with someone who has, or is assumed to have any of these personal characteristics. |
13. List
four reasons that conflict arising from different cultural/diverse backgrounds
can arise?
14. List two general signs that may identify a conflict exists?
15. What strategies would you use to resolve any conflict in the workplace? Describe in at least two paragraphs.
16. Reflect on how you would (or do) feel as part of a minority group that is subjected to exclusion, discrimination and negative attitudes in Australia purely because of others perceptions of you. What impact do you think this would (or does) have on you and your life and your overall health and wellbeing? Consider also the previous trauma/negative experiences of some minority groups (refugees etc) and how these experiences combined with negative attitudes may impact on their health and wellbeing. Reflect and comment in at least half a page.
Assessment 2 –
Research Project
Gathering
accurate information on the diversity of your clients is essential. In order to complete this
assessment you will be required to research your local community population and
provide a one page summary report.
This summary must include:
- General demographic information concerning either your own local community or the area of your workplace. This information will vary, however, must include:
- Most prominent diverse group, i.e. this could be ethnicity, age, family status
- Cultural backgrounds
- Age ranges – average ages etc
- Family status (i.e. singles, couples, same sex couples, families), and
Must identify at least two major issues (health and other) that is significant to your group. Hint: These have usually been identified in the local government data (see below).
Solution.
Working with Diverse People.
Work with diverse people
Assessment 1
Question one
The term diverse has several meanings depending on the context in which it is used. The term diverse can be used to describe individuals, groups of people, social or cultural practices among other aspects. For individuals; diversity means the fundamental difference that exists among individuals which includes personality; one person may be regarded as a honest, kind or humble while another person may be regarded as dishonest, unkind and arrogant. Such are personality traits that indeed differ from one person to another; language may also be individual diversity and; learning ability; some people may be slow learners while some are fast (Rosado, 2006). Such are examples of individual diversity, may also include life experience for different people.
The term diverse may also be used in the context of a group of people. There are several different groups of people that live together, work together or engage in different activities together. Such people may be diverse in terms of social difference such as race, ethnicity, sexual identity, gender, class, and sexual orientation, political, cultural and religious identity (Rosado, 2006). The dynamics of the global world have indeed brought people from such diversity to share several aspects in life.
Question two
Human always view the world in the spectacles of their own attitude, believes and values (Peale, 2012). This statement simply means that human always expect things around them to occur according to their expectations, believes and the attitudes that they have towards such aspects. For example if a citizen of a certain country believe that his or her country is superior to another country; such person is more inclined to perceive a citizen from the other country as less superior compared to himself. Indeed such are the thought processes that guides human rationale and action. There are people who believes that it does not matter what one does as long as at the end, the results are satisfactory; on the other hand, some people believe in the process by which a specific results is achieved, and such processed are always expected to be right. Those who believe in the end justifies the means, do not generally care about other people or the means by which they will use to achieve a certain end; for those who believe in the means justifies the end, they care about everything and everybody they interact with to achieve a specific end. Therefore human believe, values and attitudes are very fundamental in determining relations with other people and things.
Question three
It is noble to have respect for every other person that one interacts with on regular basis at work, at home, in the community organization, churches and any other place where people come together for certain reasons. Respect is essential because allows mutual understanding and command among individual who work together. It always reduce tension especially at work place and enables people to function optimally especially junior staffs who feel respected by their seniors. The values of respect however, may sometime cause friction especially with senior staffs who by the virtue of their position expects to be respected by their junior and not reciprocate back the respect. This conflict or friction can always be avoided by establishing better channels of communication between junior and senior staffs such that direct confrontation between the two classes is avoided. It is through such direct confrontation that such conflicts are always manifested. The communication may involve notices and memos, in the event that the two groups have to engage directly, it is essential that other relevant and neutral parties in the organization are involved. Regular seminars and training of the management staffs and junior or subordinate staffs should always be held to train staffs of specific work ethics especially emotional intelligence which has since become an integral part of management.
Question four
Other than ethnicity and race; other categories of diversity include social, cultural, gender identity, sexual identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation and religious identity. There are different social and cultural diversity; the social and cultural practices in India may not necessarily be the same like those in Australia. The same is to sexual orientation; some individual may be gay, lesbians, transgender among other sexual orientation types.
Question five
It is very important to understand and respect the diversity of people in a health care system. This is indeed such a crucial aspect of human life. Health of individual is very important. Doctors, nurses and any other person trained in the field of health care needs to understand and respect diversity; for it is the foundation upon which fair medication and treatment of patients is built. If for example a doctor works in a hospital and he or she does not respect gay people; the relationship between the doctor and the patient becomes compromised already. The doctor may be bound by the code of conduct and ethics to treat the patient, but it is possible that he/she may not offer extra mental, emotional and psychological support which is integral in the process of healing.
According to the Australian charter of healthcare rights (2008), the people receiving healthcare and those giving health care all have important roles to play in ensuring that quality healthcare is delivered at all times. It is therefore not just the responsibility of the healthcare workers to respect and understand diversity; the people receiving healthcare must also as well respect the diversity of the healthcare workers. But is essential for the staffs to understand and respect more diversity in a healthcare system.
Question six
Perceptions, believes and values that individuals hold may only hold as far as the expectations according to such aspects hold as well. There are situations that may occur that may significantly change these aspects either negatively or positively.
Discrimination; one may hold the value that everyone was created equal regardless of color, race or ethnicity. However, this values and believes may only hold as far as the person holding them have not experienced discrimination. Experience of extreme discrimination may make someone change the believes and start developing negative perspectives.
Inclusion; people may only feel discriminated as far as opportunities for inclusion are not present. Once such people experience inclusion in activities that involve different diversity for example different ethnicity and race; and discover that the perceptions that he or she has always held are wrong; such people may be inclined to change positively such perspectives.
Education; some people unfortunately believe in some notions or perception only because they lack sufficient knowledge about the same. For example, one may dismiss the fact that some gay are born and instead believe that it a choice. But upon reading scientific evidence and research findings, such a person may be forced to change his or perception and believe about the same.
Experience; generally, people believe certain things only because they have not experience them. Someone may believe that there is no miracle until he or she experience something that is close to a miracle that would change his or her perception forever.
Question seven
The Muslim culture and social practices are of great interest indeed. The Muslim generally values very much family life. Most of the Muslim lives together as brother and sisters, cousins and many more other relatives. Religion is the most important value to the Muslim and is taught and followed strictly right from childhood to old age. The Muslims worship in mosques and they have specific times for prayer for which; everything else is set aside for prayers. The Muslims pray at least three time every day; at down, at noon and at sunset.
One major area of difference of Muslim with the Australian culture is religion; Muslims generally have no tolerance to any other religion why in Australia, anyone is free to worship in any religion he or she prefers. The similarity however exists in the value that they have for families.
- In the discussion of the Muslim cultural practices; sensitivity was censured by engaging the colleague in a more friendly conversation and being honest with the respondent to dispel any fear. Provocative question were also entirely avoided
- Through such undertakings; unconscious bias in individuals can be appropriately addressed since through such undertakings, one gets to know more about the other group’s culture and social practices and one is able to separate the myths from the truths; also through comparison, one is able to compare the difference that may exist between such cultures and maybe realize that there is no such a significant difference between the two cultures.
Question eight
Some of the activities that could be undertaken to strengthen cultural, racial, ethnical, gender and any other form of diversity would include;
- Team building; team building is physical participatory game that brings together staffs of different positions, and diversity together to socialize and share out of work experience. Through such participation; members of different diverse groups get to share their experience and other people learn from them. Through team building, the Afghanistan, and the aboriginal may have an opportunity of understanding and knowing each other well as well as other different staff members
- Staff training and orientation; staff training would be very important to strengthen the diversity among the staffs. Training and orientation will enable the staff members to know each other and understand the roles that every member in the organization plays and how such roles are all intertwined. This will bring about appreciation respect and understanding among staff members.
Question nine
According to the Australian rights human commission report of (2007), the social, economic and healthcare services of the aboriginals in Australia are poor. According to the report, there is a difference of about 17 years of life expectancy between the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and the non-indigenous Australian originals. The poor social, economic and health situation are due to poor infrastructure especially for health. The report indicated that specific fundamental needs such as drinking water were unavailable among the aboriginals in Australia. The group is underrepresented politically as well in Australia. Technically the government of Australia has developed several measures of improving the living standards of the aboriginals and Torres strait islander but according to the report; the effects have not been effective as much and indeed more needs to be done to ensure that the social, economical, political and healthcare gap that exists between the aboriginals and non-indigenous Australian is reduced significantly. According to Ross (2010), the western culture broke and eroded the social, cultural, economic, and political and health structures of the aboriginals, as such the group is always hesitant to adopt the western culture, civilization and practices hence the great discrepancy.
Question ten
- Since Joseph has realized his mistake of not showing concern at first to the old man when he told him to seat down without looking at him. He should now approach the gentleman with remorse and apology and affirmatively acknowledge his mistake. Then he should gesture to the gentleman to now take a seat and inquire from the old man how he would like to be held. To make up for the initial mistake he had committed. He should show total commitment to the gentleman to ensure that the old man is efficiently and effectively taken care of.
- Three effective ways of communicating to patients who have vision, hearing and cognitive difficulties include using signs, symbols, gestures and or communicating with the primary caretaker of such people.
- Signs and symbols would work for people to whom English is a second language. This is because signs and languages for people with hearing or vision difficulty are mostly the same only that they are translated in different languages. But the signs generally remain the same across the languages.
Question eleven
It would feel terrible to be discriminated against and excluded based on perception that others have on me as part of a minority group. Every human has the desire to belong to the main society, share and enjoy the activities and the life itself in wholesome. Discrimination essentially deprives the minority of such fundamental rights and happiness; it makes people feel less confident and isolated from the society. In extreme cases; this may even lead to impulsive behavior by such minority. The holocaust is an experience that any minority can relate with. Many Jews were senselessly burned to death yet they only represented an idea that in itself was non-practical, it was merely faith. One can only imagine the worst that can happen if discrimination and exclusion is based on other factors such as race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
Research Project
The city of greater Dandenong is in Victoria, Australia. It is a local government area in the south of Melbourne. The approximate area of the city is about 130km2. As of 2014, the city had a total population of 146,000. Of these; 7.6% represents people of the age 0-4, 11% represents the age of 5-14%, 13% represents 15-24, the majority 54.2 % represents the age of 25-64, 13.8 represents 65-74 and 6.3% represents age of over 75 years.
In the greater Dandenong city, there are a total of about 46,000 households. Of these; 30% represents couples, 46% represents couples who have children, 19% represents households that are headed by a single household head and 5% represents other family types. The city is dominant with non-native Australian who actually speaks different language other than English. About 82% of the household in the city comprise of people speaking different languages such as Kiswahili, mandarin, Dari, Khmer, and Vietnamese. 71% of the residents are of different origins including Cambodia, India, Afghanistan, Punjab, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Kenya among other origins.
References
Australia Human Rights Commission (2007). Social determinants and the health of indigenous people in Australia. Australia
Greater Dandenong City Council (2014). Social Statistic. Retrieved July 15, 2016 from, www.greaterdandenong.com/document/42/social-statistics
Peale, N. V. (2012). The power of positive thinking. Random House.
Rosado, C. (2006). What do we mean by “Managing diversity”. Workforce diversity, 3, 1-15.
Ross, S (2010). Western science and aboriginal people. Retrieved July 15, 2016 from, www.stdneybarani.com.au/sites/western-science-and-aboriginal-people/