Compassionate care for people from ethnic minority backgrounds: What is it and how can it be applied in social care settings?’

Summary

When people need care and support, the services they receive should allow them and their families to have a good quality of life and positive experience of using services. Sometimes care can be lacking and so now many people have started to talk about providing ‘compassionate care’ to help make care better. This seems like a good idea. However, it is not easy to understand what it is or explain what would prove that care is compassionate. So the questions are: What does compassionate care mean to people from ethnic minority backgrounds receiving social care services, their families, and service providers? How can compassionate care be applied in social care settings? These questions will be answered in a way that helps develop ideas about how to improve social care provision for people from different ethnical groups. The student will talk with people from ethnic minority backgrounds receiving social care services, their families, service providers, and policy makers about how they understand compassionate care, their experiences of receiving or providing care, the things that prevent them from providing good care, and the things that help them provide good care. The key elements that seem the most important to people will help us to develop recommendations for staff training to improve the quality of care that is ethnically and culturally appropriate.