Mednarodni projekti
Best practices for care and wellbeing education to support the needs of LGBT people as they age
Raziskovalci (1)
| št. |
Evidenčna št. |
Ime in priimek |
Razisk. področje |
Vloga |
Obdobje |
Štev. publikacijŠtev. publikacij |
| 1. |
16069 |
dr. Mojca Urek |
Kriminologija in socialno delo |
Vodja |
2017 - 2020 |
562 |
Organizacije (1)
Povzetek
The project BEING ME aims to support the social inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) older people who use care and wellbeing services. As the population of Europe is ageing, more and more older people are in need of care and support. This will include older LGBT people, who often need more professional care and support as many do not have children. Research has demonstrated that older LGBT people experience social exclusion while interacting with care providers and that their life stories and relationships are overlooked and undervalued [NOF 2014, Higgins et al 2011, Almack et al 2010;]. In some cases they experience direct discrimination within health and social care environments.
Current curricula in educational institutions pay little or no attention to sexual and gender diversity among older people [Hafford-Letchfield 2010]. Hence health and social care educators can exacerbate the problem by perpetuating heteronormative assumptions and ignoring LGBT identities in education. Consequently health and social care workers go on to neglect the importance of sexual identity, sexual orientation, sexual health and gender in their assessment and care [Cocker and Hafford-Letchfield, 2010]. Research indicates that aged care environments perpetuate exclusion of LGBT people through advertising and policies that assume heterosexuality (Phillips and Marks 2008). Therefore to raise awareness and acceptation of LGBT older people it is important to include sexual and gender diversity in the education of our future health and social care staff.
This project aims to promote and support the social inclusion of LGBT older people in receipt of care through positive interaction with educational institutions that prepare future professionals to work with older people. By exchanging good practices, including teaching and learning materials and by developing educational resources and pedagogies, we aim to improve the knowledge and competencies of future care professionals in the area of LGBT affirmative practices. By enhancing the skills, knowledge and competencies of educators and students, future practitioners will be in a position to develop a culture of support, openness and respect for LGBT identities which is essential to LGBT older people’s inclusiveness in care environments.
