Happy Pride Month, everyone! I have been thinking recently about how in the coming years, inclusivity for the LGBTQ+ community is going to be increasingly important in homecare. A lot of people have this idea of the LGBTQ+ community as being very young, and thus not relevant to the demographic that you commonly see in homecare. Putting aside the fact that disabled people of any age or orientation can be in homecare, this is a bit of a weird assumption, especially because of some sad history.
The History
The AIDS epidemic inthe 1980s greatlyimpactedthe LGBTQ+ community justin termsof the high fatalties in the community and the stigmathat the disease carried with it. Gay men and trans women were among some of the highest proportion of the fatalies. According to Dr. Sarah Patel, to this day the exact numbers of AIDS fatalities in the queer community during the crisis are unknown but we do know that gay and bisexual men were disproportionately impacted. So, one of the reasons why people assume the queer community is younger than it is, is because there’s a huge missing contingent of the community. There’s also the simple fact that there are plenty of gay older people, they were just hidden for most of their lives due to stigma.
What That Means Going Forward
We’re going to have to realize this bias, and not only does that mean beinng inclusive of our clients and their families, but caregiverswill also have to adjust certain procedures. HIV positive clients will be more common, and luckily HIV can be managed with the help of some amazing medications. We are non-medical, but working familiarity with such antivirals, hormones for the trans community, and others will be helpful in our work.
Written by Brigid Coffey
