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Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic is the terminology normally used to describe people of non-white communities in the UK

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people in the UK from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. There are nine protected characteristics (age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation). Any discrimination that occurs because of one or more of these characteristics is unlawful under the Act.

The term 'general population' is used in this resource as all individuals without reference to any specific characteristic

The term health inequality refers to differences in the health of individuals or groups. Any measurable aspect of health that varies across individuals or groups can be called a health inequality. In contrast, a health inequity, or health disparity, is a specific type of health inequality that denotes an unjust difference in health. Health differences here are preventable and unnecessary and allowing them to persist is unjust. The key distinction between the terms inequality and inequity is that the former is simply a description employed whenever quantities are unequal, while the latter requires passing a moral judgment that the inequality is wrong.

Arcaya MC. et al (2015). Inequalities in health: definitions, concepts, and theories. Global Health Action 8:27106

The term impairment refers to 'any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function'. Whereas a disability is the restriction or limitation caused by the impairment: 'any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being'.

Institutional discrimination typically refers to the unjust and discriminatory mistreatment, through unequal selection or bias, intentional or unintentional, of an individual or group of individuals that exists within the structures, processes and procedures of an organisation.

LGBTQ is a more commonly used acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (sometimes abbreviated to Trans) and Questioning and/or Queer.

The Medicines Use Review (MUR) is an Advanced Service within the English NHS Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework. It consists of accredited pharmacists undertaking adherence-centred reviews with patients on multiple medicines, particularly those receiving medicines for long-term conditions.

Multi-morbidity is the presence of two or more chronic medical conditions in the same individual.

Person-centred care supports people to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to more effectively manage and make informed decisions about their own health and health care. It is coordinated and tailored to the needs of the individual. And, crucially, it ensures that people are always treated with dignity, compassion and respect.

There are four principles of person-centred care:

1. Affording people dignity, compassion and respect
2. Offering coordinated care, support or treatment
3. Offering personalised care, support or treatment
4. Supporting people to recognise and develop their own strengths and abilities to enable them to live an independent and fulfilling life

[Health Foundation (2014) Person-centred care made simple. London, The Health Foundation]

Prejudice is an irrational or unjustified opinion or attitude towards an individual based solely on their membership of a social group. Prejudices can either be positive or negative; the negative form of prejudice can lead to discrimination.

Discrimination is the behaviour or actions (usually negative), towards an individual or group of people to deny access to those whom they believe do not deserve the same treatment as everyone else. Discrimination, therefore is an action that denies the rights of a person due to their membership of a social group.

Stereotyping involves identifying features that a group of individuals is supposed to have, making such features the dominant characteristic and then suggesting that every member who belongs to the group possess such features. This can be harmful as it can lead to errors in decision making that carry the potential for negative (discriminatory) consequences. It is therefore important that we don’t stereotype people but rather seek to view them as individuals.

Groups of people who are eligible to receive a health service (such as the Medicines Use Review) but for whatever reason, do not end up receiving the service despite them being potentially most in need.