Polish carers are invisible to Scotland’s health and social care systems
Feniks launches a new study revealing challenges encountered by Polish Unpaid carers in Scotland
A recently published study by Feniks dives into the struggles faced by Polish nationals caring for their loved ones in Scotland. The report exposes the difficulties these caregivers encounter on their journey to accessing and receiving support from public and third-sector bodies.
The first obstacle is often a lack of self-identification as an unpaid carer, followed by a lack of understanding of the rights and entitlements a carer can benefit from.
Polish carers find the health, social care, and social security system complicated and difficult to navigate. Carers expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of accessible information and outreach from institutions. There is a common deep-seated distrust towards the institutions resulting from negative experiences. The lack of appropriate language support often hinders carers’ journeys to services.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this report, we would like to make recommendations for actions to create more targeted support for Polish carers and inform the system on how to change its approach to implementing the law. It is vital to highlight the provision gap for minority communities and indicate the best practices to mitigate it.
- Introducing human rights advocacy positions in Scotland to bridge the gap when public bodies do not fulfil their obligations to Polish carers and when carers lack the capability or awareness to advocate for themselves.
- Improving collection and access to nationality/ethnicity data to promote research into vulnerable groups. Also, encouraging Equality Audits for the public and third sector organisations.
- Raising awareness of the needs and introducing cultural awareness training for professions to address issues such as self-id and barriers to engagement.
- Proactively working with grassroots organisations to raise awareness about the rights and entitlements of Polish carers.
- Training provision for interpreters in the values and meaning of the Scottish legal and healthcare system.
- Promoting workforce diversity to foster inclusion.
- The ethnic diversity of the client group should be included at the basic level of the service design, ie. including a budget for interpreting services and training in cultural approaches to caregiving.
- The intersectionality of Polish carers requires culturally sensitive and customised support, recognising that disengagement from the service does not indicate the disappearance of their needs.
