Effects of discrimination on patients and service users
Effects:
Marginalisation – If a person is discriminated against they may feel as though they are being pushed to the edge of society and being made to feel different. A Muslim patient in a hospital denied the opportunity to go to a prayer room. They may not be offered Halal food.
Disempowered – To be deprived of power and made to feel weak and unimportant. An elderly woman with arthritis having people feed her and dress her when she can do it herself will start to feel worthless and she won’t have the power or the freedom to do things for herself.
Low self-esteem – Beliefs about yourself as a human being will become negative and you will tend to focus on your weaknesses and mistakes. It may be hard to recognise the positives about yourself. You will blame yourself for any difficulties or failures that you have experienced. An emotional teenager being a target for bullying would result in that teenager having low self-esteem.
Loss of self-identity – To feel like you now longer know who you are as a person, people around you have brought your feelings down to a level of which you just want to give up on life. So you may choose a life of crime or violence, affecting those around you as well as yourself because you are trying to fit in with those around you.
Restricted opportunities – All types of discrimination may lead to a person not being able to use health and social provision and this can lead to poor life choices and poor health. The discrimination may be by individuals, health organisations or even the government.
Negative behaviour – Negative behaviour, aggression or crime can be partly caused by discrimination. Living in poverty and experiencing discrimination can affect an individual’s behaviour. For example, a carer in a care home shouting at an elderly resident all the time as he is slower than she wants him to be.
Loss of rights – All organisations have to comply with the Human Rights Act. However, there are some cases where the act can work in different ways. Cases when a person’s rights have been removed by force or power. Statutory powers are used when a child is taken away from abusive parents. Although the parents’ rights are being affected, the child’s right to health and safety comes first even if the parents object.

Long and short term effects (M1):
Marginalisation
Long term positive: The patient may be noticed more by other patients and this would show that they are different making them more accepted. This may interest people as being different is what makes people irreplaceable. The patient could campaign for change this would help make people realise that just because people are different doesn’t mean they are not normal.
Long term negative: They will be marginalised when they are being treated. If the patient asks for something they may not be given it because they are different. This is unfair to the patient and so they may not get treated correctly and may end up with long term problems. The patient may become depressed and try to commit suicide or think about suicide.
Short term positive: None Available.
Short term negative: The patient may feel like no one cares and that they are not important to many people, but they may learn to realise that only the doctors and nurses are treating them like they are not important not everyone. The patient may feel upset because they are not being treated like everyone else.
Disempowerment
Long term positive: A disability school student will learn what it is like to be disempowered, he or she will learn to overcome disempowerment and may then go on to help others who are being disempowered.
Long term negative: They may be worried every time they go to school, as they may be wondering what the teachers are going to say today, the student then would not be able to focus on school because they would be continuously worrying. The student may become depressed and if they are disempowered it may affect the grades they get in their exams.
Short term positive: The student may stay at that school for the rest of their school life and then go to college where they may feel more accepted. They wouldn’t be stuck with the same teachers constantly, this will help them to deal with problems better.
Short term negative: Being disempowered for the first time may make them lose confidence, time to create new skills and they may not take as many opportunities as other people, it may also make them upset.
Low self-esteem
Long term positive: The service user could report and ask to be treated with respect and care because the way they are being treated is unfair. They could change their carer to someone who cares for them and doesn’t treat them horribly.
Long term negative: They will stop trying to do things, they may end up forgetting skills they could do and they may become depressed.
Short term positive: The service user may ignore the carer who us making them self-conscious and try to handle things on their own.
Short term negative: The service user may feel more ill and have little if not no motivation to do things. They may feel upset and angry.
Low self-identity
Long term positive: They may learn to ignore the people who are bullying them, because they of who they are, as not everyone bullies or discriminates people. Eventually they will gain more confidence to do things.
Long term negative: The student may have been bullied or discriminated against for a long time so they have become mentally unstable, so they will constantly feel down about who they are. They may start bullying others.
Short term positive: They should think positively, accept who they are and believe that they can do anything, otherwise they would not get anywhere in life if they keep thinking that they don’t know who they are.
Short term negative: The student may have built up their anger and hate up, this could put them in a negative mood every day, not wanting to be who they are. They may change who they are to fit in and forget who they really are.
Restricted opportunities
Long term positive: Doctors who are a different religion may be respected because they have had the courage to go for a promotion even if they haven’t got it. This will make them more resilient.
Long term negative: Restricting doctors from going for a promotion or getting the promotion may not help patients as the doctor who is a different race may have more knowledge about certain treatments than the other doctors do. They may not have a very good work ethic, they could become depressed and maybe commit suicide.
Short term negative: It could help people to realise that not all hospitals are fair to doctors of a different race and this may encourage people to do something that will make the hospitals change their minds. People and doctors May become angry and upset.
Short term positive: Doctors have to save people’s lives and if a doctor who isn’t as good as another gets the promotion because of their skin colour they could put that patient’s life in danger.
Negative behaviour
Long term positive: The student would move in the school years and learn to ignore other who are racist. Not everyone has a negative attitudes towards others who are a different race. The student may campaign to get better treatment.
Long term negative: The negative behaviour could happen anywhere as not everyone is nice towards other people and they would have to learn to put up with it. The student may become racist and they may consider suicide.
Short term positive: They could report the student who acts negatively towards them. This could make them feel better because they will feel more confident and the negative student will be told that they need to sort out their attitude.
Short term negative: The student would feel hurt and disrespected but they would learn to deal with it as they go through life. They become angry with people.
Loss of rights
Long term positive: The service user could report the carer as they would be taking away their rights to have privacy when they are getting dressed as they are unable to do that themselves. They may get a new carer who gives them their rights. This will improve the care they are given and may improve their mental state.
Long term negative: The service user may be stuck with the same carer for a long time and this would make them feel down and unhappy. They could also get extremely tired of not being given privacy when they are changing. If they are stuck with the same carer they may become depressed.
Short term positive: They may try to change themselves on their own because they don’t want to have someone not giving them any privacy.
Short term negative: Loss of rights may make the service user feel unhappy and depressed because they are not being treated fairly. This may also make them have a negative attitude towards other people.