Lgbtq elderly care
- A long history of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community within health care, social supports, employment, the housing sector, and other systems has led to unmet health and social needs that product in health disparities for these populations when compared with cisgender, heterosexual individuals.
- States, managed look after plans, and providers are implementing strategies to improve access to culturally responsive care through anti-discrimination legislation, partnering with inclusive organizations, and delivering provider trainings.
- This brief explores opportunities to surpass support LGBTQ+ older adults through Medicaid. It also includes unique considerations for California partners to support this population through CalAIM, the state’s Medicaid transformation initiative.
The U.S. population is rapidly aging. Likewise, older adults who spot as lesbian, same-sex attracted, bisexual, transgender, gender non-conforming, and additional sexual and gender identities (LGBTQ+) are also a rapidly growing population. Currently there are an estimated 2.7 million
Special Concerns of LGBTQ+ Caregivers
Introduction
As Americans live longer, greater attention is being paid to the concerns facing aging adults and caregivers. While many issues are the same for all older adults and those who care for them, some unique considerations arise for lesbian, gay, fluid, and transgender (LGBTQ+) people dealing with aging.
How Chosen Families Affect Caregiving
As you may already know, many LGBTQ+ people form powerful “families of choice” in addition to their families of origin as a way of coping with possible or actual rejection by parents, siblings, and other relatives for creature open about their sexual orientation or gender persona. Even as attitudes own changed and LGBTQ+ people have become more evident and accepted, families of choice still provide invaluable networks of emotional and social support. Nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ+ older adults say they consider their friends to be chosen family.
Being a member of both a chosen family and a family of origin creates situations where an LGBTQ+ person may become a primary caregiver for a spouse, national partner, or legal spouse, a close friend who is also LGBTQ+, or an aging parent or other relati
Older LGBTQ adults tackle unique challenges in giving and receiving care
Every morning, Luther Moxley helps his partner of 35 years, Wayne Curtis, out of bed and into his wheelchair. Curtis, who has Parkinson's disease and is partially blind, washes himself seated in the shower, but he needs Moxley to dry him and help him assist into his chair.
Moxley makes their meals and cuts Curtis' food into bite-sized pieces. He manages the household and does the grocery shopping. He takes Curtis to and from the healer and anywhere else he needs to go. But in truth, they rarely go anywhere anymore.
"We're pretty much isolated," said Moxley, 74, who cares for 83-year-old Curtis packed time. Though Curtis has some family, there are none who will aid. The couple has no children. Moxley, who has no surviving family, wonders what will occur to him should he someday necessitate care of his own.
"I guess I would have to go into some kind of assisted living," he said.
Their situation is all too common among people who distinguish as LGBTQ, whose caretaking needs are rising as the population ages. The National Resource Center on LGBTQ+ Aging estimates that by 2030, there will be 7 million U.S. adults 65 an
During the COVID-19 pandemic, while droves of homebound Americans were learning to bake sourdough (I included), one man was learning about genealogy. Armed with an ancestry.com account, Andy Ingall dove in and adv discovered an unfamiliar branch on his otherwise unremarkable family tree: his father’s cousin, Leon. “I was amazed by what I could find: gender and eye color, ship manifests...but what blew my soul was Leon’s 2001 Vermont Civil Marriage Certificate. It was issued to Leon and a man named Warren—a name I’d never heard.”
Andy traced both men's childhoods into adulthood through archival records. Warren was of German heritage. He was born in Kingston, New York, and moved to the Bronx as a child. Leon was a Jew who fled Russian and German persecution, emigrating to the Merged States in 1940. Both men served in the US military. According to a surviving friend, Warren’s service included a period in which he was an operative for the O.S.S., the precursor to the C.I.A. While records indicated faithful service as a soldier, Leon was dishonorably discharged. The reason: homosexuality.
Despite gaps in Ingall's research, several key moments helped synthesize the couple’s stor
Inclusion guide for LGBTQ+ people in care homes
"Existing explore shows that many older LGBTQ+ people experience discrimination and inequalities when engaging with health and protect services in the UK," the spokesperson said.
"When it comes to protect homes, many older Homosexual people fear 'having to go back into the closet' to be safe."
Dr Jolie Keemink, from the University of Kent’s Centre for Health Services Studies, said: "Research shows that the older Queer population is expected to rely more heavily on social care than their heterosexual counterparts, because they are less likely to have children and more likely to experience a lack of social help.
"Older LGBTQ+ people may also have unique health risks that increase their likelihood of needing care."
She said those risks included social isolation, addiction, dementia and HIV.
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