TRAINING to enable all staff – from senior management down – to identify and eradicate racism is being introduced across Health and Social Services to address a problem previously described by the chief officer as “so bad it would make you weep”.
The department has launched a “stand against racism” campaign to “call out” and “challenge” the abuse.
It will also provide support for those experiencing racism, a review of policies and procedures, and collaboration with other government departments, including the police, to help combat the problem.
Washington Gwatidzo, HCS diversity and inclusion lead, said the department wanted to make sure that in the future it became an exemplar in its response to a problem which he acknowledged existed within the community, but also within the department.
“Most public services in the UK are signed up to be anti-racist in terms of how they work, how they support their staff, and how they work with the communities they serve. We have got a very multi-cultural community and we serve everyone in the Island. To ensure that we provide the right care, we have got to be sensitive to all the different cultures that come through our doors.
“When we look at counterparts in the UK, we can see that it is quite a challenge, whether internally or whether it’s the people that they work with.
“Being an anti-racist organisation means that we will actively identify it rather than just downplaying it. Where we see it happening, where we see people experiencing it – whether you are the victim or someone observing – we will call it out, we will challenge it and explain that it is not acceptable within the organisation,” Mr Gwatidzo said.
In March, Health gave details of a staff survey returned by 88 health workers which showed that more than half had experienced racism from patients, while around two-thirds of these said they were not satisfied with the way it had been dealt with. Meanwhile chief officer Chris Bown told the Health Advisory Board earlier this year that racial abuse was something they must rid themselves of. “Discrimination results in poor care for patients,” he said.
Mr Gwatidzo, a nurse by training who has been working in Jersey for the past 12 years, said he had been discriminated against in his job because of his race, a patient at a clinic having refused to have her child treated by him because of his “difference in culture”.
“I was very upset. I went and approached my manager who was very supportive. That child was seen but it was very unfortunate that their treatment was delayed due to assumptions based on my skin colour,” he said.
He accepted that the Health Department itself was “not immune to what the population is experiencing”.
“This is a journey that the organisation has got to go through together. If the whole organisation is truly going to stand against racism, we have to work together to make sure we nail this down. The language we were using five years ago is very different from the language we are using today.
“One of the biggest fears is not to have the discussion – this is a learning opportunity together to identify where unintentional behaviours or language may happen,” he said.
