Transcript Today's Forgotten Citizens

Ethnic Enable
Forgotten Citizens
Who are we?
• Ethnic Enable is a charitable organisation
set-up by people with disabilities for
individuals with disabilities from the Black
and Minority Ethnic Communities
• Established 2000 by chair Imran Sabir
Forgotten Citizens
• Very limited statistical data available
• Within our client group 20% of families
have more than one child with learning
disability
• Prevalence of learning difficulties in South
Asian between 5 – 32 yrs is 3 times higher
than other communities (Azmi at al)
• Prevalence in other minority ethnic groups
not well documented
• Research impressions suggest that high
instance within African Caribbean
Community
• Poor take-up of maternal health care
within BME communities, maternity
services under-used by South Asian and
African Caribbean women
• Need to consider inter-group variations
within ethnic minority communities.
• Within South Asian communities the
Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities
appear more affected by disability than
Indian communities
• Differences also exist between religious
groups in terms of diet, lifestyle, socioeconomic status and health experience
• Mean income of Pakistani’s &
Bangladeshi’s about half of white
households in same social class category
(Nazroo 1997)
Why do the BME community not
access support services?
• Health professionals have lack of Cultural
Awareness
• Linguistic Barriers
• Negative attitudes held by service providers
towards BME community
• Lack of confidence in asking for help
• High levels of unmet needs
• Fear of Stigmatisation
• Bad experiences
• Fear of Racism
Feedback
•“Things are structured around a white way of
providing care and our community makes me
feel guilty. Agencies don’t realise the
pressure we are under from our families
sometimes.”
•“There are not enough facilities for women
with learning difficulties”
• “Nobody in my family knows (daughter has
learning disabilities)- I don’t want to tell them as
they will say ‘daughter is mad’
• “My experience is that people with mental health
difficulties are stigmatised by other members of
the community and by their family and friends. It
is due to lack of awareness. There are
campaigns to change attitudes of people in
Scotland about mental health. But they don’t
seem to reach out to the ethnic minority
communities. So we feel even more
stigmatised.”
• "Her learning difficulties. She is an adult,
so the children's activities are not right but
adult classes are not right for her either."
How to Overcome Barriers?
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BME community MUST be seen as priority
BME communities MUST be consulted
Services MUST be culturally competent
Staff MUST be trained adequately
BME organisations are key, partnership
work is Essential
• MUST recognise the link between
disability and socio-economic factors
For the Individual
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Support to help make choices
Support in education or employment
Avoid use of jargon
Adopt plain English
Most importantly- LISTEN!
Points to Consider
• Why should the BME community be
considered a priority?
• What change can you as an individual
make within your organisation/place of
study/place of work to ensure that
individuals from the BME community with
learning disabilities do not become
‘Forgotten Citizens’?
Contact Details
• Furrah Arshad
• [email protected]
• 0141 334 2277
• www.ethnicenable.org.uk