Race and ethnicity in Health and Illness

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

• beliefs and ideas
• a defined social group draw upon
• to identify and manage practical problems of everyday lives

Question 2

What is ethnicity?

Answer 2

• distinctive set of cultural characteristics
• social constraint
• include common geographical origins
• common ancestral origins
• language
• culture traditions
• shared characteristics like:

= nationality
= migrant status
= religion
= race

Question 3

What does ethnicity incorporate?

Answer 3

• 2 concepts:
  o Ethnic group
  o Ethnic origin

Question 4

What is ethnic group?

Answer 4

• SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
• self perceived identity and membership of social group
• used in survey research
• including ethnic monitoring now carried out within NHS

Question 5

What is ethnic origin?

Answer 5

• common ancestry
• place of origin
• conveys historical and geographical context

Question 6

What is the problem with ethnic origin?

Answer 6

• hard to classify ethnicity in 2nd/3rd generations
• who have come to Britain
• born elsewhere, but work and socialise here

Question 7

What are the disadvantages of using ethnicity as a construct?

Answer 7

• Assumes ethnic boundaries are fixed and clear but they are not
• Ethnic and cultural boundaries constructed and maintained by groups themselves hence subject to change as mentalities change.
• Stigmatisation/ discrimination

= CAN be an identifiable group blamed for problems within society
= carry weight of undesirable moral, physical, social, cultural characteristics or conditions
= stigmatised as dirty e.g. diseases such as syphilis or AIDS, TB or leprosy, ‘immorality’ or ‘ignorance’

Question 8

What is a social construct?

Answer 8

• everyday knowledge
• produced by individuals
• directed towards practical problems

Question 9

What is race?

Answer 9

• social contruct

- no genetic basis

Question 10

Why do we do ethnic monitoring in the NHS?

Answer 10

• so NHS can get equitable provision of services= without racial/ethnic discrimination
• important role in national screening programme for sickle cell disease and thalassaemia major- might be more common in one ethnic group
• Subdivide population in order to aid in health research and planning how services are provided

Question 11

What is hard about ethnic monitoring in the NHS?

Answer 11

• hard when putting race and ethnicity together
• ‘reification’ (making an abstract concept concrete or real) of ethnic origin producing a set of categories, for example Other Asian’ or Other Mixed Background’,
• there have no meaning to outside world

Question 12

Why is it important for doctors to have a cultural awareness?

Answer 12

• challenge stereotypes
• remove institutional racism

Professional cultures and institutional practices in health care can play an important role in reinforcing and constructing norms of patient behaviour. It is usually ethnic minorities who are all too often identified as those groups falling outside of these norms – termed ‘institutional racism’. (E.g. higher rates of sectioning in psychiatry in minority groups)

• can know about patient’s beliefs for how their healthcare should be e.g. doc decision changes when knowing about what they allows to have eg. muslims cant have pork or dietary advice for hindu vegan

Question 13

What is institutional racism?

Answer 13

• failure of organisation to provide appropriate and professional service to people bc of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin.
• shit attitude and behaviour
• discrimination
• prejudic
• ignorance
• racist streotyping
• this disadvantaged minority ethnic groups