The first resource of the BestCare4LGBTQI+ project is now available!
Why BestCare4LGBTQI+?
While estimates are that around 10% of the residents of elderly care homes & services are LGBTQI+, when asked about LGBTQI+ residents, management and care professionals of care homes & services usually state not to ‘have’ them or not to have ‘any problems with homosexuality’, and increasing discrimination and exclusion turned out to be an unknown subject to them which they had not thought of before. LGBTQI+ people are at high risk of being discriminated against in residential care homes as they lack a ‘voice’ due to heteronormativity and the social taboo on sexual diversity (Leyerzapf, H., Visse, M., De Beer, A., & Abma, T. (2018).
Moreover, LGBTQI+ older persons, as they experience and fear being rejected by healthcare providers, care professionals, and other residents, can feel forced to go ‘back into the closet’ (Stein, Beckerman, and Sherman 2010).
Therefore, BestCare4LGBTIQ+ was designed to support the development of LGBTQI+-friendly older care services by providing tools, awareness-raising materials, and learning resources to home care and residential care services managers and staff to ensure a better adapted and more respectful and inclusive care for LGBTQI+ older people living in care facilities.
Aligned with the European priorities regarding inclusion and diversity, the project supports them by:
- sensitising professionals, service providers, and the general audience to issues faced by LGBTQI+ populations in general, and in terms of accessing services and care services.
- providing tools for effective inclusiveness: not only through posture and attitudes of the professionals, but also through developing sets of strategies and tools, and possibly even through the design of residences or any other practice that has been tested and proven to support the positive integration of LGBTQI+ members within residential care facilities and home care services.
- elaborating a grid referencing a set of practices that effectively support inclusion of LGBTQI+ residents that users, workers, as well as other parties of interest can refer to e.g., Awarding a Badge of Excellence for Inclusive Residential care of Older LGBTQI+ service users.
- creating a platform gathering best practices for making residential care facilities and home care services inclusive towards LGBTQI+ service users.
“Make me feel at home” booklet
The first result developed within the BestCare4LGBTQI+ project is “Make me feel at home” – a captivating booklet filled with stories of older LGBTQI+ people and professionals. It provides a rich and insightful view of the needs and expectations of older LGBTQI+ residents, as well as of the professionals willing to build more inclusive services.
The booklet was created through a collaboration between the project partners and professionals and older LGBTQI+ people. A valuable foundation for the development of the next results, this insightful booklet with 45 testimonies allows the partners to detect the needs and expectations of older LGBTQI+ residents as well as professionals willing to build more inclusive services.
Download and read the booklet here: Results – BESTCARE4LGBTQI+
Learn more about our project at: https://www.bestcare4lgbtqi.org
