INTERVIEW REFLECTION
Running Head: INTERVIEW REFLECTION
Date: 03/ 18/ 14
Identify Role: Neighbor
Interviewee: Shirley Brown
Introduction
Mrs. Alice Brown is a 62 year old woman with a Master's of Science in Nutrition and Health Promotion. Mrs. Brown is a retired nutritionist who worked at Grady Memorial Hospital. Instead interviewing someone that was obese, I decided to interview Mrs. Brown because I wanted to get her perceptive and opinion, as a nutritionist that has never suffered from obesity. Mrs. Brown acknowledged that for many of us, we think obesity just isn’t an issue, but it is. She also stated that skinny people, even supermodels that can fit into the skinniest of jeans can be “super fat". Everyone expects an overweight person to have lots of fat, but it can be a shock when a thin person has as much internal body fat as obese person. Mrs. Brown stated that “Normal-weight obesity” is a term used for thin people who are really fat because, despite weighing light on a scale or having a normal body mass, they have high levels of body fat. She also talked about how obese individuals experience discrimination. Mrs. Brown stated that obese individuals are frequent targets of weight-based discrimination, mostly in the employment setting.
Analyze
One of the social issues Mrs. Brown talked about was discrimination, and that’s one issue that all obese individuals suffer from. Individually, people who experience discrimination based on their weight are likely to gain more weight. This is due to the fact that negative attitudes lead people who are obese to not lose weight, showing that discrimination has greater implications than poor mental health for fat people. On a family member level, people tend not to talk about the issue because the family member does not want to hurt that individuals feelings and the problem never gets address because family members tend to think that it “runs in the family”. This individual and family member discrimination effects young, middle, and late adulthood. On an organization and institutional level, middle adulthood tend to receive the most discrimination. For example,weight matters when it comes to getting hired and getting a promotion. No one wants to believe employers do care about how much a person weighs, but study after study points to discrimination against obese job candidates and employees.
Other Useful Information:
The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any type of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, and any other term or condition of employment. Age discrimination involves treating someone less favorably because of their age. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) only prohibits age discrimination against people who are age 40 or older. It does not protect workers under the age of 40, although some states do have laws that protect younger workers from age discrimination. It is not illegal for an employer or other covered entity to favor an older worker over a younger one, even if both workers are age 40 or older. When it comes to obese individuals, they are frequent targets of weight-based discrimination, mostly in the employment setting. Victims of weight discrimination have wanted legal compensation like others who have suffered from different forms of discrimination. However, in the vast majority of the United States, body weight is not protected and weight-based employment discrimination does not provide a basis for a legal claim.
Personal Experience Impact:
When conducting this interview with Mrs. Brown, a lot of things stood out to me. Overall, the one thing that continues the amaze me is that individuals like me, that weights only 120 pounds at the age of 22 can also be obese and unhealthy. My intentions of researching about individuals that are
obese were to give myself more insight, and also educate myself on ways to prevent obesity. After conducting this interview, I have realized that even though I appear to be slim and in shape, I am unhealthy because I do not eat right and could be obese internally.
Future Social Work:
Social worker should advocate by providing educational and advocacy information to individuals throughout the United States who are seeking to educate themselves on the condition of obesity, the negative stigma associated with it and health risks. Future social workers should encourage individuals affected by obesity, their family members, healthcare professionals and more to advocate for access to safe and effective care. We should also learn how to address and identify obesity-related issues within the healthcare community.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, whether you're at risk of becoming obese, currently overweight or at a healthy weight, you can take steps to prevent unhealthy weight gain. Follow a healthy eating plan. Make healthy food choices, keep your calorie needs and your family's calorie needs in mind. Above all we should be more active!