The Care and Abuse of Minoritized Ethnic Groups: The Role of Statutory Services

Abstract

Abuse in care relationships is an increasing concern in social policy and service provision. Attention has been drawn to the abuse of cared-for people in their own homes, the abuse of carers by family members and the abuse of people in institutional settings. Drawing on qualitative research with carers/carees from South Asian and African-Caribbean backgrounds, this paper explores a different conceptualization of abuse which moves away from an interpersonal understanding, to one that recognizes structural inequalities as a form of ‘institutional’ abuse of carers and those who receive care. This reconceptualization of abuse gives particular attention to forms of racism and discrimination in the provision of services to minoritized carers/cared-for people. It therefore makes significant contributions to discussions of caring and race equality in the health and social care fields

The Limits of Self-Management: Community and Health Care System Barriers Among Latinos With Diabetes

“…Forbat (2004) affirms that different meanings are created when minority individuals interact with institutional systems of care. Knowing whether discrimination, an institutional-level factor, influences diabetes management can help health care providers tailor and disseminate health information properly to engage Latinos to properly comply with their care.…”

The family in question: immigrant and ethnic minorities in multicultural Europe

“…This chapter explores how 'external' debates, notably in the public sphere which, as Grillo supra notes, often reflect migrants' imagined cultural practices, interact with 'internal' debates that occur within migrant families. Several authors draw attention to the impact of external debates in the form of policies on South Asian families in Britain in the arena of care and service provision (Boneham 1989;Forbat 2004;Katbamna et al 2004). South Asian families are often positioned in public discourses as 'looking after their own', and this, it is argued, contributes to the low take-up of services by Asian elders and the misrecognition of their actual care needs (Forbat 2004;Harper & Levin 2003).…”

“…Several authors draw attention to the impact of external debates in the form of policies on South Asian families in Britain in the arena of care and service provision (Boneham 1989;Forbat 2004;Katbamna et al 2004). South Asian families are often positioned in public discourses as 'looking after their own', and this, it is argued, contributes to the low take-up of services by Asian elders and the misrecognition of their actual care needs (Forbat 2004;Harper & Levin 2003). Such assumptions about families fail to recognise that they are undergoing change arising from a variety of factors related to the migration process and the development cycle of households (Mand 2004), and it is in these contexts that internal discussions and negotiations about who cares, and for whom, occur.…”

“…For example, family members can maintain different positions, which may vary according to generation and gender, and as we shall see public discourses can be contradictory (Forbat 2004). Furthermore, although an element of ethnic division exists, for example, between a 'white' public sphere and minority ethnic families, this is not always the case: staff working in the local authority, for instance, are drawn from minority groups.…”

“…Cultural racism implies that ideas about cultural practices are essentialised and seen to be deterministic of behaviour. The recognition of cultural racism draws attention to the changing ways in which racism is expressed and experienced which has been to move away from a biological and physiological signifiers towards practices and values based on 'culture' (Forbat 2004;Song 2003). While the significance of race in understanding public discourse and debate for the experiences of minority ethnic elders remains pivotal (Bowes & Dar 2000), discourses about the family are often framed around essentialised ideas about the culture of a particular migrant group.…”