CDC will drive LGBTI responsiveness
While the traditional aged care framework has relied on providers understanding people’s needs, CDC will, for the first time, put the control over service offerings in the hands of LGBTI seniors.
The move to consumer directed care will help drive systemic change that ensures the range of aged services on offer better responds to the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) seniors.
While the traditional aged care framework has relied on providers understanding the needs of clients, CDC will, for the first time, put the control over service offerings in the hands of LGBTI seniors.
Furthermore, as providers learn to operate in the CDC model they will increasingly identify and respond to the different needs and preferences of the individuals who make up the broad LGBTI category.
That’s according to Dr Gavi Ansara, senior health policy officer with the National LGBTI Health Alliance, who will discuss the impact of aged care reform for LGBTI seniors in a webinar hosted by the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG) next week.
Dr Ansara said that CDC will provide new opportunities to address some of the needs of LGBTI seniors that have been previously invisible or unaddressed.
As LGBTI seniors made requests that addressed their needs, many providers would discover they did not yet have the resources to provide these services.
“There are some very specific needs that are not on radar screens of very well-intentioned and forward-thinking aged care service providers,” Dr Ansara told Australian Ageing Agenda. He said the potential of CDC was that every client interaction offered providers an opportunity to learn, gain feedback and to improve their service offering.
The ongoing initiatives in staff training around LGBTI seniors’ needs were very important, he said, with the Alliance’s national LGBTI Aged Care Training project rolling out with partners in all states and territories. However, he warned that training must be reinforced by systemic change.
“You could have well-trained professionals, but if they’re working in a system that doesn’t allow them to respond to people’s needs then they won’t be affecting the way services are delivered.”
Dr Ansara said CDC would also facilitate greater awareness among providers and staff that LGBTI was an umbrella term for a broad group of people, many of whom had distinct needs.
“So a single gay man may have different needs from a gay man in a same-gender relationship. That may be different from someone who is bisexual, or from someone who is of trans experience who may be in a same-gender relationship or in a mixed-gender relationship.”
As CDC was implemented, it was important that older people were aware of their rights and options, he added.
Dr Ansara will appear in the AAG webinar alongside Dr Stephen Neville, senior lecturer in the School of Nursing – Auckland, Massey University, and Dr Catherine Barrett of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society at La Trobe University.
The webinar, ‘Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex People‘ takes place on 1 May.
AAA is the media partner of the AAG.
Related AAA coverage: ‘Making aged services truly LGBTI inclusive’
