Occupational Therapy News July 2020 | Page 18

FEATURE EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Tackling
structural
inequalities
one
conversation
at a time
Musharrat J Ahmed-Landeryou was recently invited to speak
on the OT and Chill podcast ‘L.O.V.E – Let’s talk about race
#BlackLivesMatter’. Here she urges everyone to engage in difficult
conversations about race to make change happen
Every time the deaths of black people when in the
hands of or in the care of authority is publicised,
it is a wound that scars deeply, mentally and
emotionally. Every time a death happens, you
are reminded of the scars, and another scar is added.
I am angry and upset out of fear and frustration that yet
again there will be no action and this will result in another
inquiry. In fact, as I write this, the Prime Minister has asked
for one into the health inequalities for the Black, Asian and
Minority Ethnic (BAME) population.
Examples of reviews and recommendations include:
• the Grenfell Review (www.gov.uk/government/
publications/independent-review-of-buildingregulations-and-fire-safety-final-report):
council flats
have still not had dangerous cladding removed, or
sprinklers placed, or clear evacuation plans put in
place, and most of the evacuees are still in temporary
accommodation;
• the Macpherson Report (www.gov.uk/government/
publications/the-stephen-lawrence-inquiry): 20
years after Stephen Lawrence’s murder, the
recommendations for training when policing BAME
areas, or BAME leadership representation, or BAME
recruitment have not been adequately dealt with,
so institutional racism, discrimination and prejudice
continues;
• the Lammy Review (2017) into the treatment of and
outcomes for BAME individuals in the Criminal Justice
System (www.gov.uk/government/publications/
lammy-review-final-report): no action has been visibly
taken on the seriousness of the overrepresentation
of BAME people in the criminal justice system, the
endemic racial bias throughout the justice system, or
the recommendations regarding training and building
community trust and dealing with unconscious bias;
and
• the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, by Wendy
Williams (www.gov.uk/government/publications/
© GettyImages/RyanJLane
18 OTnews July 2020