Older Lesbians and Gays Accessing Health and Aged-Care Services

Abstract

This paper examines older lesbian and gay people's experiences of and expectations for the delivery of health and aged care services. In-depth narrative interviews were conducted with older gays and lesbians in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Data were analysed by identifying evaluative statements within specific narratives and 2 grouping these statements into themes. Participants reflected on the meaning of their sexual identity and how they would like it to be acknowledged when in contact with health and aged care service providers. In addition to direct discrimination, participants reported a more indirect form of discrimination in providers' assumption of heterosexuality among clients and their failure to provide lesbian-or gay-friendly services. The findings highlight the need for health and aged care services to better understand and acknowledge older gay and lesbian people's sexual identities to enable improved access to services in the future.

Lesbian and Gay People's Concerns about Ageing and Accessing Services

“…Concerns have also been expressed about the general invisibility of older lesbians and gays in the health and aged care sectors, in part due to the treatment of older people as asexual and homogenous (Bayliss, 2001), the treatment of sexuality as a private matter (Harrison, 2001;Hughes, 2004), and the heteronormative assumptions made by service providers (Hughes, 2007b). And, in general, the heteronomative and heterosexist discourses in gerontology in aged care act to reinforce intentional and unintentional discrimination (Harrison, 2004).…”

“…While there have been some important qualitative studies conducted in Australia (e.g. Barrett, 2008;Chamberlain & Robinson, 2002;Harrison, 1999;Hughes, 2007b;Hughes, 2007c;Waite, 1995), there remains a lack of larger scale quantitative investigations of lesbian and gay ageing. This has not been helped by the fact that Australian studies of sexuality have tended to exclude older people from their samples (Minichiello, Plummer & Loxton, 2004).…”

“…For lesbians and gays, other important social determinants of health include discrimination by mainstream health and aged care providers, the availability of lesbianand gay-friendly services, and the provision of specific services for lesbians and gays (Hughes, 2007b). In a recent qualitative study of 25 non-heterosexual Victorians aged 58 to 87, not only were recent instances of discrimination reported in relation to aged care delivery, but the research also highlighted the effects of historical experiences of discrimination (Barrett, 2008).…”

Attitudes of Heterosexual Assisted Living Residents Toward Gay and Lesbian Peers

“…Even today, the majority of aging and LGB-focused research continues to disregard late life issues for sexual minorities, leading older LGB adults to be referred to as an -invisible population,‖ (Butler, 2004;Hash & Cramer, 2003;Hughes, 2007). However, older LGB adults will continue to become increasingly more visible in the general population.…”

“It's okay to ask.” Inclusion of sexual orientation questions is feasible in population health surveys

“…1 These communities may have specific health needs, 2,3 and experience difficulties in accessing appropriate health care services. 4 However, many surveys do not include questions to identify sexual orientation.…”