Case studies and articles
Diversity challenge?
Topics covered in this article: Equality & diversity
By Dale Meller, Equalities People and Performance Directorate NHS Health Scotland
Practitioners often say to me that engaging with people from diverse backgrounds, particularly 'non-white' backgrounds, is challenging in the context of mental health. I guess I can understand that, particularly when we don't often get the opportunity to work directly with BME individuals or communities. But I think times are changing, as Scotland gets more diverse we need to get much better at setting aside our fears of 'difference' and getting back to basics - respect for the individual.
Mosaics of meaning (.pdf) is a good read - partly because it helps to dispel some of the mystery about working with diverse communities. But I would say that, I was one of the authors. Keen to hear what other people think...
Diversity challenge?
Comments
Posted by Lyons Donald on Friday 03 September 2010 at 15:47
Look out for our overvew report this year. We have some data on ethnicity and the Mental Health Act. It looks as though black African people are proportionately more likely to be detained in Scotland. We don't have complete data and the population has changed since the last census. Despite this, I think our findings will be well worth a closer look.
Comment edited by an administrator on Mon 4 Oct 2010 at 14:28