Scottish | Malayali - NHS Business Support Officer / PA
My Mum was brought up in Manchester but is originally from Scotland (Skye). My Dad was Malayali, born and brought up in Singapore. He originates from Kerala in South India. They met at a party in London, where they had both moved for work.
My parents really championed our learning about different cultures, their own and other peoples. They each did this in different ways and it wasn’t perfect. I have grown up loving the food that my Father loved, the fusion of cuisines that grace the hawker centres of Singapore. My Father did not teach us his mother tongue (Malayalam) and to this day I don’t really know the true reason for this. My Mum continues to reveal the good in Britishness, she gave us a love and appreciation for Morecambe and Wise, the Beatles and for me, a love of ‘the north’. I owe my love of difference and learning about other nations and peoples to my parents.
I have worked for NHS trusts for the last 4-5 years. I think that there is a lot of good and overt work that has been done to make NHS employees feel understood, known and included when it comes to gender and sexuality. I do feel however there is still a lot of work to be done around workplaces understanding, celebrating and embracing the benefits, challenges and beauty of different cultures. Working within mental health for the last few years, I can say that I have seen the incredible work of many people of colour/non-British people in taking care of some of the most unwell people in our local community. I have seen both good and bad examples of how culture has enabled and hindered the care of patients. I feel that there is a need for both public and private sector employers to consider the ever diversifying population of this country, and to do the work of learning to enable safe and developing work environments, where good racial-norm difference can be adopted and racial-norm difference which hinders care (in the case of the NHS) can be addressed, discussed and changed.
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