Jewish Israeli Social Workers’ Responses to Ethnic Health Inequality

Abstract

In this study I explored the perceptions and responses of Jewish Israeli social workers to the health inequalities facing their Arab clients. Findings drawn from face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 26 Jewish Israeli social workers employed in the health field show that they were highly aware of the health inequalities. Although they uniformly insisted that there was no discrimination in the hospitals where they were employed, they observed extensive structural and individual discrimination outside the hospital and linguistic and sociocultural impediments to health equality within it. The discrimination provoked feelings of anger and moral outrage, guilt, and shame. Both the discrimination and the linguistic and sociocultural impediments filled them with frustration and led them, both individually and in concert with colleagues, to try to alleviate, circumvent, correct, or compensate for the impediments. Suggestions are made for practice and further research.