The 1st of March is the day United Nations’ Organization chose to be the day to remind us that this world is not equal yet and we have to take action about it. But there is only 1 day that you should take this action. Today! Every today is the day. Every today that passes with you passive is a future actless yesterday. This International Day is here to make us rethink our past actions and change our next ones. It is here to help and inequality in all fields for all people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, etc.
Factors of Discrimination
This is an indicative list of some of the factors that may lead to discrimination in several situations:
Age range
Gender identity
Ethnicity
Skin color
Sexual orientation
Health status
Body weight
Religion
Economical status
Please contact us and tell us about your experiences with discrimination (against you or others).
“Discrimination, abuse and lack of access to justice define inequality for many, particularly indigenous people, migrants, refugees and minorities of all kinds. Such inequalities are a direct assault on human rights.” ~ António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
Discrimination in Health Care
HIV – AIDS
HIV-positive patients are often mistreated or health care professionals, hospitals and clinics deny them care. One in three women living with HIV across 19 countries reported experiencing at least one form of discrimination related to their sexual and reproductive health in a health-care setting within the past 12 months. This stigma, makes people living with HIV more likely to die of AIDS-related illnesses.
Body Weight and BMI
Overweight and obese people face stigmatization too. Negative health-related assumptions and inappropriate comments coming from doctors have been reported from most of them. During a research, doctors were cited as the second most common source of weight stigma and discrimination, following family members.
Ethnicity and Skin Color
Racism significantly affects everyday health care, not only because of racist doctoral behavior, but, also, due to race health stereotypes that aren’t medically proven. As shown in research Hispanic whites, Asians and African Americans were more likely to report lower ratings of care compared to non-Hispanic whites in the USA.
Drug Use and Abuse
Drug users are often perceived as unreliable or unworthy by health care providers. They face care denial as doctors tend to assume they are trying to trick them in order to get any available form of drugs when in need of dose. But that is not always the case. Ethically we should not deny care based on assumptions, as that may lead to untreated serious or not diseases. In fact, 52% of women in Canada who inject drugs had avoided seeking health care in the previous 12 months due to the fear of discrimination.
Socioeconomic Status
People of lower socioeconomic status can face health care inequalities due to lack of insurance as a result of poor income. Additionally, homeless people are often getting mistreated or even assaulted for trying to get health care.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
It is usual (unfortunately) to hop to assumptions when it comes to this field. From simply assuming someone’s gender to thinking of the stereotype of all gay men having HIV, those beliefs are contributing to maintaining inequalities in health care.
Age Range
Elders are sometimes mistreated and ignored during their care, because of the feeling that younger people’s health is more important. A feeling that is not correct ethically. All lives matter the same and are worthy of the same level of care.
Conclusion
Health is a universal value and everyone has every right to it. As already stated, all lives matter the same and are worthy of the same level of care. Discriminations and inequalities should have no place in modern health care and we have to work towards that.
There are lots of topics in this article that truly deserve their own article and we are working towards that. There will be several upcoming articles discussing inequalities and suggesting ways that we can help to eliminate them.
To end with, we want our articles to be interactive, so contact us with your experiences on health care discriminations. We will be glad to share them anonymously so that this message can get as loud as possible. We all deserve the same level of care!
We strongly encourage you to contact us in whatever way suits you and discuss the article, suggest ideas for upcoming content, tell us your strong and emotional stories or for any other reason you would like.
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Thank you for your support!
The “Being a Midwife” team
References
Racial/Ethnic Discrimination in Health Care: Impact on Perceived Quality of Care, Dara H. Sorkin, PhD, Quyen Ngo-Metzger, MD, MPH, and Israel De Alba, MD, MPH, Society of General Internal Medicine (2010)
Weight Bias in Health Care, Natasha Schvey, AMA Journal of Ethics (2006)
Zero Discrimination Day UNAIDS Brochure, UNAIDS, 2021
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