Social Care, Research, and the Minority Groups - Article Example

SOCIAL CARE, RESEARCH AND THE MINORITY GROUPS Social Care, Research and the Minority Groups The purpose for this research review is to give an overview of how social care has changed over the last ten years in special category research. In particular research that targets the minority groups such as the vulnerable adults, people living with disabilities, the blacks and other minority ethnic communities. The target research under the microscope is “Research with black and minority ethnic people using social care services” a research carried out by the commissioning of the National Institute of Health and Research. The authors of this report are very senior researchers with long outstanding interest in social justice, ethnic community development, local sustainable governance and modern day slavery. Dr Tom Vickers, Gary Craig and Karl Atkin have notable achievements in the field of social care and community development. Dr Vickers in a Senior Research Associate at the Durham University’s School of Applied Social Science, his particular interest include the relationship existing between the state and community action. Gary Craig is a professor of community Development and social justice at the University of Durham. Finally, Karl Atkin is a medical sociologist with a particular interest in doing qualitative research in multi-disciplinary and culturally diverse settings. This particular topic “Research with black and minority ethnic people using social care services” is of particular significance because not so many decades ago other parts of the world believed in the oppression of a particular groups inalienable rights by another group or a set of groups. Though this may not be inexistent any more in the wider majority of the world, it’s facilitated by the enshrining of these rights and freedoms in the constitution, but be that as it may, it does not do away with the numerous years, memories and stereotypes developed by communities, both minority communities as well as the mainstream groups. It therefore important to note that just because a number of legislations have been past into laws then all insecurities and complexes have been forgotten. Therefore, the spirit of the law may not reflect the desired intention of the law. Much has been done in the past to ensure that more and more policies and studies are sensitive to the minority groups, an area of high interest. The article in review “Research with black and minority ethnic people using social care services” examines the changes that developments achieved this far in social care and moved further to offer applicable scenarios for these new policies, practices and outcomes. The authors postulate the importance of ethnic sensitivity in carrying out research, for one to carry out proper research one needs to embrace fully the challenges that the target group is undergoing to be able to generate meaningful topics for research. This particular article does stand out because it does not only source its content from social care research but from a diverse disciplines such as, medical and health sciences, and interlinks them together to bring out a clear picture of the current and possible future advances in social care when dealing with black and other minority people. In addition to the diversity of the sources of this article, its use and application is also diverse, it is designed to be relevant not only to researchers new to health studies and community development but also seasoned researchers, social care practitioners and most importantly the students. This research article has been retrieved from an online source, finding it was not easy, the reason being the presence of the numerous other research projects on the same subject available online, however, picking it from the various other research available was easy. Its presentation was appealing, and its writings were reader friendly. Its storage format is PDF, a file format that is easily accessible to virtually all applications for the computer operating interfaces. The source of the article is a reputable archive of research, the national institute of health and research archive; school of social care. The organisation and structure of the paper were particularly a facilitator in building interest in this article. Immediately after the abstract of the paper the authors gave the recommendations of their studies. This has made it easy to get the content of the document even without having to go through the whole paper, and it outlines in a methodical manner the recommendations based on the methods and conclusions derived from this study. The findings of the study go along way with my views on this particular issue as a social scientist. The recommendations that mainly agrees with my school of thought are; the recognition that ideas of ethnic diversity are sensitive to places and time, and thus social care researchers need to be conscious of their environment when conducting similar assignments. The recommendations also suggest that to generate culturally competent research, researchers need to focus more on the individual experience instead of the priorities of research as governed by the policy since different people have different experiences. This mainly is encouraged when working with a multi-cultural group. The articles’ philosophy is quite interesting, the authors have brought out their thoughts on issues that have controversial interpretations without taking a very firm position. On a few matters that they have brought out such as sampling, data collection and getting consent, they do so with a measure of balance acknowledging the limitations introduced by chocking free research and the overall ethical value it adds to both the discipline of research and the participants especially members of the minority groups. The other issue is the embracing the concept of standpoint theory, this report advocates for researchers to engage with cultural, ethnic and religious diversity, when dealing with issues relating to stereotypes, this approach gives the researcher the ability to raise very meaningful questions within that context. These issues, in particular, have resonated with my views on social care when it comes to working with the minority. This paper aims to assess and evaluate ways and means of carrying out research especially with the minority groups. Trying to bridge the gaps created by stereotypes that have been in existence as a result of history. It assesses the strides covered all through the last decade and makes recommendations that may improve social care to minority groups. The principal objectives of this study are; to summarize methods used in past research work, and give a detailed description of those methods, their contribution to the social care and their limitation. To reflect on the use of these methods in social care practice and finally to generate recommendations that may be more effective and widely employed. The approach employed by the authors of this article was an integrative approach; the study was carried out primarily through online databases. These databases include the web of knowledge and social care online. Though the approach was integrated it was not systematic, it involved sending a request online for contributory material. The requests were targeted to online networks of researchers; Social-Policy, Minority-Ethnic-Health, Race-Ethnicity-Criminology among others. In addition they hard broad consultations at the national institute of health and research; school of social care in 2010, at an ethnic training network held by the department of health at the University of Leeds during a special seminar on “ special issues in sampling ethnic minority and migrants “. The finding of the research included: Community health care and needs to adjust to the frequently changing field since issues of ethnic diversity are sensitive to time and place. In essence all researchers should be aware that what may be a factor to take lightly today may be a serious issue in some time to come or the vice versa. Similarly some issues are geo-specific (Johnson & De Souza, 2008, pg. 6-7), certain group issues apply in particular areas while in others they may not be such a serious issue, for instance gender issues in the developed countries are not a major concern because women in this part of the world are empowered and can speak their issues without any stigmatisation (Johnson & De Souza, 2008, pg. 9). Nor do they feel that men have more opportunities than they do. This however is not the case in all parts of the world. In Arabic nations a gender issues is a quite sensitive issue and needs to be approach with caution. Issues of racial discrimination are also not as grave in most African countries as they are in western states. To accomplish such research needs to avoid cultural determinism. When representing collective responses, while simultaneously also avoiding idiosyncratic, subjective and potentially misleading guidance (Heginbotham, 2012, pg. 234). These tend to make an effort at generalisation impossible and, therefore, calls for more sensitivity on how participants use cultural values and norms to give meaning to their experience (LARKIN, 2009 pg. 4). To be better researcher when handling matters of cultural diversity one should embrace the concept of the individual experience of the people working in this particular research (Graham, 2007, pg. 60). The overall generalisation of policy and practice of social care methods may not help bring out the sensitive issues that may otherwise not be realised. More often the researcher should engage with the issues under scrutiny to improve their understanding and enhance the relevance of the subject. To engage more with the diversities when dealing with stereotypes, this should enable the researchers bring out meaningful questions while providing care to an increasingly multicultural and super diverse society. The study addressed the issues in a methodological manner tackling each issue and suggesting possible solutions to each, and not generalising solutions for each. The researchers understand that putting issues in context with their matching contemporary issue helps the readers decipher better the intentions of the paper. The authors of this article also raised some crucial issues, ethics of research; according to this article standards should not just be considered on the subjects of the research but also the potential for group harm to those with no direct impact on the research (Bullman & Finlay, 2000, pg. 142). In some cases, the participants of a research should be involved in the research to make sure that some cultural aspects that the researcher may not be familiar with are sorted beforehand. For instance if a researcher would want to carry out an interview to find out the reason as to why the black people of the United States are associated with violence or ask a person of white descent from Texas, to try and explain why it was hard for the people of Texas to give up slave trade during the civil war or why they actively supported the “Jim Crows” legislations. The answers to these questions if not properly crafted will only work to create bigger barrier and heighten stereotypes even more (Bullman & Finlay, 2000, pg. 145), since the responses to these questions may require the respondent to refer to another group of people or set of people who are not part of the research in bad light. Sensitive respondents may retreat and not answer questions effectively thereby missing out on the objective of the study. The conclusions arrived in this paper have been double sourced, one from the online source and the other from conferences and seminars of similar minded researchers. This helps in strengthening the findings of the research, the use of online networks to sources for research data give the advantage of sampling respondents from different geographical and cultural setting. The use of multiple approaches to acquire the same information shows a triangulation approach in the carrying out of the study by these authors. This document stands one major disadvantage, the disadvantage of using an online platform to sample your responses. The intended respondents may not be the actual person responding to the particular research questions. This introduces errors in your research especially during your correlations. The sampling may also be skewed, and may leave out persons who may not have had time to respond online (Jones & Smith, 2007, pg. 23). The response time also is highly variant since different people will find the time to respond to the questions at a different time and may affect time bound research. In summary, this article clearly brings out the issues it intends to pass across to its audience, and it does so with a great measure of precision. It spells out its purpose and goes ahead to deliver on each objective at every turn. The subject matter is also of great importance not only to the budding researcher but also to seasoned as well as student researchers. The organisation of the document is easy to follow and each issue or problem raised is tacked immediately in its own paragraph, making it easy for the reader to complete the thought, instead of having to wait until the end of the document to get the solutions to the issues raised. Finally, their content source has been diversely sourced; they have exploited the rich networks of online databases of experienced researchers and used social care and health studies seminars to enrich further their content. Bibliography BULLMAN, A., DAVIES, C., & FINLAY, L. (2000). Changing practice in health and social care. London, Sage. Diversity in Health and Care (Radcliffe), http://www.radcliffe-oxford.com/journals/J26_ Diversity_in_Health_and_Care/default.htm and Ethnicity and Health (Routledge) http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/13557858.html Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care (Pavilion Press), http://www.pierprofessional.com/eihscflyer/index.html GRAHAM, M. (2007). Black issues in social work and social care. Bristol, Policy Press. HEGINBOTHAM, C. (2012). Values-based commissioning of health and social care. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. JOHNSON, J., & DE SOUZA, C. (2008). Understanding health and social care: an introductory reader. Los Angeles, Sage JONES-DEVITT, S., & SMITH, L. (2007). Critical thinking in health and social care. Los Angeles, SAGE Publications. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10285223. LARKIN, M. (2009). Vulnerable groups in health and social care. Los Angeles, SAGE. Read More