FEATURE
The Right Match
Maaha Suleiman, Founder of Care Matched, discusses why culturally appropriate care is even more important today than ever before.
According to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), culturally appropriate care means being sensitive to people's cultural identity or heritage when providing care. For example, it might be based on ethnicity, nationality or religion. Or it might be to do with the person's sexuality or gender identity. Unfortunately, this isn’t a habit that is practised or even discussed widely in the care sector, why is that?
In fact, I would argue that providing culturally appropriate care is even more important today as a result of what seems to be a never-ending pandemic. Various government restrictions caused care receivers to have less contact with people that understand and affirm their culture such as family and friends. They also spend more time with people who do not share their culture – especially in care home settings.
The current narrative of social care oſten neglects to mention the specific needs of the ethnic minority community and how the lack of culturally appropriate care leads to a poorer quality of care for them. For example, advanced dementia can cause some people to lose their English language skills and revert back to their native language, it then becomes difficult to connect them with a care worker who can communicate with them in their preferred language. This will inevitably lead the care receiver to feel even more lonely and isolated.
Regular users of the Tik Tok social networking service may have seen some disturbing videos of black care workers being harassed by their white clients. And, advanced dementia can also cause some people to revert back to some of the racist tendencies they displayed earlier in their life. Care organisations have a duty to safety to not only their care receivers but also their care workers, especially those from a BAME background by shielding them from discrimination and harassment over characteristics protected by the Equality Act.
So, how are care organisations dealing with the demand for culturally appropriate care right now? I was curious about this myself so I decided to phone up some domiciliary care agencies in Tower Hamlets and ask them directly. I started by asking them
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whether care receivers ever request care workers from a specific cultural background or understanding and unsuprisingly, they all replied with ‘yes, all the time’. I then asked how they fulfil their client’s request and they told me that, for example, if the clients had requested a care worker that speaks Tamil and can cook vegetarian Indian food, they would go down a list of their care workers and call the ones with an ‘Indian-sounding name’ to check if they meet the requirements which is problematic, to say the least, let alone inefficient and racist.
“The current narrative of social care often neglects to mention the
specific needs of the ethnic minority community and how the lack of
culturally appropriate care leads to a poorer quality of care for them.”
What can be done differently today? Well, we can start by providing care workers with cultural competency training and promoting the inclusion of cultures and identities in care. The Care Matched app and web portal aims to address all of the issues above. Care Matched not only provides care workers with cultural competency training on different religions and dietary requirements but they also match care receivers with care workers based on factors such as language proficiency, religious understanding, hair and grooming and what type of cultural foods they can cook. Care receivers can also make requests for special holidays and care workers with specific skills, experiences and qualifications.
There’s hope for the care sector yet, but there is still a long way to go to provide everyone with the person-centred, culturally appropriate care they need.
https://carematched.co.uk www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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