Discriminated employees and a one-sided view of diagnoses: Amsterdam adopts racism in its approach to care
Councilor Ayşegül Kiliç (Denk) spoke visibly emotionally during the council debate in mid-February. She told about her mother, who had complaints and visited the doctor more extensively, to the doctor she had in her country Turkey. “A separate diagnosis from the doctor, my mother was a convert with no migration background. She was just Dutch and uses her maiden name, but was wearing a headscarf, just like me.”
When a proper diagnosis was made, over a year later, it was too late. Her mother died four weeks later from the effects of metastatic breast cancer.
The GP from the first moment for the perspective perspective, Kiliç now realizes. Subtle racism, says the councilor, racism that occurs daily in Amsterdam care. Several studies support white’s point of view: In general, male perspective is central to disease recognition. Just like in the development of medicines.
The municipality wants to act against this ‘invisible’ racism, it was decided on Monday. Care organizations must be made obligatory for ‘culturally sensitive care’, including with a ‘representative workforce’ and ‘training of employees’. Care training courses must also pay more attention to financing.
Children no longer as interpreters
The municipality also focuses on explicit discrimination. According to Statistics Netherlands, 15 percent of carers have a non-Western migration background. With actions, comments become good Dutch’ and ‘Have you studied this work?’. Sometimes it even comes to confrontations, indications are spat on or pushed away†
Knowledge Platform Inclusive Society (KIS) endorses these findings in a recent study. This shows that one in five care providers with a non-Western background has to do with discrimination in the workplace. For approximately 11 percent of discriminated employees, this discrimination is the most important reason to stop working in care, according to RTL News†
The municipality now wants Sigra, the Amsterdam umbrella organization for care and welfare, to draw up guidelines to prevent racism. Should processes violate these guidelines, a ‘sanction mechanism’ must be activated. These may be related, but that is still the subject of research.
Another concrete goal is that children can no longer be used as interpreters. With planned they translate (heavy) diagnoses for their parents: a heavy burden for young children. That would make more professional interpreters available to take over this task.
Booster role
One of the people behind the proposal is GroenLinks councilor Jenneke van Pijpen. She worked on the initiative together with D66, PvdA, Denk, Bij1 and ChristenUnie. “In healthcare, racism is often downplayed or accepted, and abnormalities are also vulnerable or have cognitive limitations. Our job is to set boundaries and standards and to protect healthcare workers.”
Ayşegül Kiliç states that racism in healthcare will not disappear immediately, but that the commitment of the municipality is an important step. “Unconscious assumptions persist if men don’t comment on them. There is plenty that the municipality can do, even if it is just taking on a driving role and paying attention to this in policy and policy programmes. It’s not a criticism of our healthcare workers, but the reality is that it exists.”
Alderman Simone Kukenheim (Zorg) supports the proposal and made a special compliment to Kiliç during the debate. “It’s only one story, but it makes a huge difference. Many will feel historical because of what they have also been through.” The alderman states that the initiative will enable the municipality to have a ‘much stronger’ conversation with Sigra. “That should always be more inclusive HR policy and care training where this theme should receive much more attention.”