Health and Social

Primary socialisation = the people who first influence a child, usually family.

Family are the main people who contribute to learned attitudes and beliefs of a child.

A child will learn the way of behaving according to the particular culture of the family.

The values and norms of the society in which the child is being brought up become the accepted way for the child.

A family will have either concious or sub concious prejudice which children will learn.

Prejudice views are learn by family.

Gender roles.

Secondary Socialisation = things that affect us as we grow up/ things that influence a child after family.

Children can learn further/change their attitudes and opinions from- Education.

As we grow up chnages in attitudes and opinions can change from:

Media, income, work, religion, peers, discrimination, housing, health care.

Media can include - Books, TV, magazines, films, ad's and radio. Media tends to present stereotype view of people.

Work - dividing people into layers of strata.

Religion - beliefs we have

Peers - influence of friends and people who are the same age as ourselves. Peer groups can influence what others think and contribute to the way a service user or child see's themselves.

Self esteem = understanding ourselves, having self awareness which leads to us forming an opinion about ourselves.

Our self esteem involves - having knowledge about ourselves and recieving feedback from other people.

From these two persectives we will form an opinion of ourselves, so that we either have a low or high self esteem.

A high self esteem - helps individuals to relate more easily to people we meet, such as family, friends and collegues. A person with a high self esteem will often view life positively and value themselves as a person. If a person thinks they are valuble, they will expect others to value them.

A low self esteem - individuals will not feel good about themselves. they will not like the image they have of themselves and so they may not be able to relate well to others. They may feel that others do not value them and that they are unavle to make a worthwile contributuion to society. This results in a person having a very low opinion of themselves and a poor self portrait.

Age - if a person is treated harshly or abused as a child then they are more likely to grow up with a low self concept. Whereas, if a person is really successful at work and has a good family relationship, they will feel like they are making a positive contribution to society and are likely to have a high slef concept.

Body shape - both sexes become concerned about their body shape. If they are overweight, strategies for slimming are likely to be implemented. Some will go to extremes causing them to develop eating disorders (e.g. anorexia). Resulting in a low self esteem.

Gender - gender is not the same from sex. Gender affects self esteem because individuals have to learn how someone of their sex behaves - gender role. A person who does not conform to the expected role often suffers extreme emotional torment (low self esteem)

Appearance - sometimes a person will not like the way they look, for example, an adolescent who has acne. This can cause them to have a low self esteem and become withdrawn.

Level 1 - Physical needs

Food, warmth, shelter and clothes are all needs that we all need before we can develop.

Level 2 - Safety needs

Having a secure and safe environment can help individuals feel confident.

Level 3 - Love and belonging

Feeling wanted and valued by someone can help a person grow and develop. 

Level 4 - Self esteem needs

Communication barriers can prevent you from feeling valued by others. 

Level 5 - Self actualisation

Leading a fulfilled adult life depends on a secure sense of who you are and positive self esteem.

Empowerment = allowing the service users to take control of their own lives.

This means presenting them with all the relevant information and allowing them to make choices and decisions.

A service user who feels that their views and decisions are valued are more likely to respond positively.

The target is to form a good working relationship or partnership where each contributor is valued. This will mean:

• Respecting service users' rights.
• Maintaining confidentiality.
• Respecting the person's beliefs, cultural views and opinions.
• Allowing service users to express their views and opinions.
• Tolerating diversity when service users do not act as we do or have the same opinions as our own.

Empowerment allows the service user to retain their own identity.

Discrimination = considering a race or culture or type of person to be of less value than one's own or to deliberately act against a group of people or to favour one group above another.

Society is made up of different types of people, each having their own traditions, beliefs and culture. 

Some people cosider their own race or culture to be superior or better than others - they have a narrow view and think the beliefs and values they hold are the only correct ones to have.

They are not prepared to be open to the values and beliefs of people from other cultures.

Discrimination can have serious physical, emotional, intellectual and social effects on an individual.

It can lead to depression, low self esteem and can completly destroy a person's belief in themselves.

Indirect discrimination:

e.g. only printing information in one language which could exclude people from accessing it.

It is less obvious and more subtle. Sometimes, it is unintentional - maybe because a person has not given a situation sufficient thought. 

Example - a European school makes a rule that no headwear is to be worn inside for most it would not be a problem - but for a muslim child it would be.

Direct discrimination:

e.g. talking to someone disrespectfully.

Individuals are treated differently in an open manner because of their race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age, class or disablity. Obvious unfair treatment shows prejudice and is intentional.

Example - Excluding someone of a different colour to you from a group.

The Act covers children and young people under 18. The key features of this piece of legislation are:

• To protect children who are at risk - the paramouncy principle.
• Children have the right to be heard.
• Childrens wishes have to be taken into consideration.
• Support to be provided to keep families together where this is at all possible.

Services provided under the Children Act 1989 - social work, help with housing and support, equiptment and adaptations, occupational therapists or specialists, short-term breaks, counselling, interpreters, an advocate or representative for individuals families.

Strengths - children are able to express their preferences and views and these have to be listened to, in other words taken into consideration. parents have responsibilites which they must accept. The local authority must work with parents. Children have rights. Allows children to be taken into care at last resort for their own well-being.

Weaknesses- court cases that involve child protection are heard privately so there can be no public scrutiny. Children under the age of 10 can not considered old enough to be held accountable e.g. for crime.

Act was promted by the failure of social services that were involved in the care of Victoria Climbie.

The Act requires local authorities in England to have in place a 'Director of Childrens Services' who will be accountable for Childrens Services. These services will be inspected and departments will have their performance levels rated so that accountablility set out as a requirement under the Act can be clearly seen.

There will also be a Children Commissioner whose task will be to:

• Initiate enquiries on behalf of children
• Find out about the needs of children and young people.
• Investigate specifically the needs and interests of children and young people.

Coveres direct (person is treated less favourably than a person of the opposite sex) and indirect discrimination (Child minder excluded single parents from using the service, seen as discrimination).

Act makes it illegal for marital discrimination to occur to both men and women - discrimination of both sexes if both are doing same job but one  is being less favourably - unequal pay. Discrimination by applying conditions on a woman that would not be applied to a man - taking rings off. Discrimination against a man by treating him differently according to his marital status - wife works so he gets paid less.

Strengths - women and men paid the same, women must not be treated less favourably than men - e.g. in workplace, illegal to discriminate against gender in areas of recruitment, promotion and training, tries to prevent direct and indirect discrimmination, helps to prevent victimisation if person has complained about sex discrimination in the past.

Weaknesses - people may not seek redress/ complain because it is too difficult to, may be hard to prove certain actions have taken place when a person is seeking redress, fear of losing employment if a complaint is made.

This Act racial discrimination illegal in public

Strangths:

• There is emphasis on promoting good elationship between different racial groups rather than merely preventing racial discrimination.
• All public services must be made accessible for people with diffeent types of racial issues, for example, cultural differences.
• Both direct and indirect discrimination relating to a race must be eliminated.

Weaknesses:

• It is quite difficult to know what happenes on a daily basis in care settings unless poor care is monitored.
• Laws can be passed but it is difficult to police attitudes, views and opinions of individuals when they occur in provate homes. Some attitudes have been passed down from family members to other family members.
• Forms of redress require individuals to know thier rights and also to know how to ensure their rights are maintained. This means that a persons situation could become worse.

Allows handicapped people to have the same opportunities in life. Concerned with preventing dicrimination against people with disabilities.

Advanatges:

• The Act coves housing, transport, employment, access to education and obtaining goods and services.
• It allows disabled people to have access to premises despite their physical disability.
• The Act helps protect those that are discriminated against.
• Eliminated unlawful discrimination against disabled people.

Disadvantages:

• Act doesnt apply to prison officers, fire fighters, police officers, members of the armed forces, people working aboad ships, air craft and hovercraft.
• Seeking redress may not be able to occur if an employee has mental health issues because of their condition it may be hard to prove discrimmination occured.
• The Act may be too expensive in wokplaces to make chances to adapt the premises to enable diabled people to access.

Brings all laws together- eveyone has an equal chance. Makes it law that public, private and voluntary services MUST NOT discriminate against employees due to characteristics such as:

• Race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belif, being transsexual, having just had a baby/ pregant, right to breastfeed, being marries or in a civil partnership (applies only at work) and age.

Advantages :

All public bodies are included in the act, emphasis promoting equality rather than reducing inequality, more efficient commissioning body which reduces costs, gives people more rights and helps raise awarness, more opportunities for men and women.

Disadvantages :

Age discrimination is still allowed as long as it has a legitimate aim, still can only use two combined characteristics, a huge law to raise awarness of and has a lot of costs attached, new laws dont have a case law and few high profile cases, children in school are not protected against age discrimination, fear of victimisation (when seeking redress).

Rights of service users:

• Confidentiality
• The right to effective communication
• own opinions, views and beliefs
• sexual orientation
• up to date information
• gp of choice
• make own choices and have consultations
• equal and fair treatment.

Means keeping information given to oneself. That is not sharing it with anyone who does not 'need to know.' it means personal and priavte information cannot be acessed by others..

In special circumstances information may be passed on by a ;need to know basis' for example:

• if a service user intends to harm themselves
• if a service user intends to harm others
• if a service user is involved in criminal activity
• when others may be at risk of harm

So care workers shouldnt promise not to pass on information.

Self referral - going staright to a service- e.g a gp. Most people will gain acess to the gp by going stright to the surgery directly or phone calling to make an appointment.

Professional referral - for example a gp makes you a referral to an x-ray as they think you have broke your arm. So professional referral is when a care worker e.g. gp makes you an appointment.

Third part referral - when another person refers a person to a professional because they are trying to be helpful or because we may not be in a position to get help that is required. An example of a third part referal is a teacher phoning a social worker because they are concerned about a child.

Some service users could be restricted or limited because they live in a care home.

Advocacy can involve giving training to a person so that they are able to help themselves. This could also be achieved through a mentor who will guide them what to say.

Others may need help of an 'advocate' to explain to them what options are available particulaly if they have a mental disability or learning disability. The advocate can be a friend or professionally trained person who speaks on behalf of the service user.

An individuals ability to effectively coomunicate their own rights and interests may nee help (above).