LGBTQIA+ in the Elderly Community & Tailoring Support within Care
In recent years, LGBTQIA+ rights have massively improved, helping individuals across the globe to finally feel accepted and comfortable enough within society to be their true selves. This has not only improved the lives of Gen-Z and Millennials, but has allowed elderly individuals to speak out, feeling empowered to come out as LGBTQIA+ in the elderly community. This “rainbow wave” presents a beautiful opportunity for care providers to ensure their services are inclusive and celebrate diversity.
LGBTQIA+ in the Elderly Community – Why Now?
The rise in LGBTQIA+ elders coming out can be attributed to several factors.
The fight for LGBTQIA+ rights, spearheaded by the Pride movement, has created a more welcoming environment within society that promotes acceptance and expression, with cultural norms evolving to be less discriminatory and bigoted. Furthermore, older generations are living longer, healthier lives, and as such are now able to confidently and safely explore their identities much later in life.
The Impact on Care
Coming out later in life can present unique challenges for LGBTQIA+ in the elderly, who may have suppressed their identities for years. Care providers need to be sensitive to these experiences and create a safe space for open communication. The first step to this is to support service-users in completing an equality and diversity form as part of their initial engagement to identify pronouns, gender identification, sexual orientation, and other protected characteristics. This will make the package more personalised to the individual and ensure awareness of specific needs and outcomes. Respecting a service-user’s pronouns and actively engaging service-users to understand their experiences is key to ensuring care remains person-centred.
Following this, a core aspect of care should be to find local LGBTQIA+ groups, especially for older individuals, to help service-users explore their identities and connect with individuals with shared characteristics. This experience may be very new to elderly LGBTQIA+, as they may not have been freely able to express their identity, leading to feelings of isolation or loneliness. Providing accessibility support to service-users will help them attend group meetings regularly, and through moral and emotional support, staff can help service-users build confidence and a local support network.
Other things care providers can do to support LGBTQIA+ services-users include:
- Training staff on LGBTQIA+ issues to equip care providers with the skills and knowledge required to meet an LGBTQIA+ service-user’s specific needs and offer sensitive support.
- Using inclusive language such as non-binary (they/them) or self-chosen pronouns, as well as respecting self-chosen names (avoiding referring to a service-user by their ‘deadname’, which is their birth name) to foster a welcoming environment.
- Celebrating diversity by displaying LGBTQIA+-inclusive imagery within the office and through rainbow lanyards/pins on uniforms and celebrating Pride events with LGBTQIA+ service-users, including taking them to festivals/fairs to show service-users they are valued for who they are.
- Supporting service-users in personal expression. This could include helping them paint their nails; doing their make-up; and supporting them to wear the clothing of their choice.
Reflecting Diversity in Tenders
Equality and diversity is a common topic within tender responses, having become a much greater priority for commissioners within recent years. To demonstrate their commitment to inclusion within the service, providers should:
- Have a robust equality and diversity policy which includes information on supporting LGBTQIA+ service-users;
- Designate an Equality and Diversity champion within the workforce who will be responsible for staying up-to-date with new, relevant legislation; promoting equality and diversity throughout the workforce through regular team meetings, package reviews, and in-office celebrations; and who will support staff on matters of equality and diversity.
- Train staff on LGBTQIA+ issues and ensure equality and diversity training is completed as part of induction – this must be refreshed annually.
- Partner with LGBTQIA+ support organisations who can help integrate equality and diversity throughout the service and serve as signposted services.
- Complete annual equality and diversity audits across both staff and service-users to identify the protected characteristics throughout the service and ensure each characteristic is supported effectively.
- Develop a list of comprehensive case studies that include supporting LGTBQIA+ service-users that can be used as examples within tender responses.
Your Tender Team will ask you about each of the points above during discussions throughout your engagement with us. This will give us a great insight into how you support your service-users to express themselves in a safe environment, which will then be reflected within the tender responses. Supported by true stories and case studies about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ service-users, we will ensure your responses reach the core of your equality and diversity practices and pose you as an inclusive provider.
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