LGBTQ+ health inequalities
The team recently undertook LGBTQ+ health inequalities training delivered by our partner, LGBT Foundation, to support our understanding and research with LGBTQ+ carers. We wanted to share an overview of what we learnt and show why being an LGBTQ+ carer can have an added layer of inequality and challenge in comparison to the general caring population.
The evidence
The LGBT Foundation’s Hidden Figures report shows there is data to evidence that LGBT people experience inequalities in multiple areas including:
Mental health
Homelessness
Alcohol use, drug use and smoking
Sexual health and HIV
Domestic abuse
Sexual violence
End of life services
Cervical screening
Physical activity
Access to mainstream and specialist NHS services
The Hidden Figures report also shows that for LGBTQ+ people with multiple minority identities, such as also being disabled or older, they experience health inequalities to an even greater extent. 19% of BAME LGBT people have experienced some form of unequal treatment from healthcare staff because they’re LGBT, compared to 13% of LGBT people overall. 19% of disabled LGBT people experienced some sort of addiction in the year preceding the survey, compared to 7% of LGBT people.
Structural inequality
Structural inequality happens when our systems, such as healthcare, education, or our judicial system do not recognise and properly cater for difference and diversity. Some examples of how structural inequalities might play out include:
Gendered toilets
Forms and paperwork e.g. a birth certificate only allowing a mother and a father, rather than a second parent
Lack of same-gender domestic abuse support
Black people and people of colour being turned away from LGBT venues
Lack of inclusive sex and relationship education in schools
Education or employment attainment gaps
Incarceration gaps
Support and change
National LGBT groups and organisations are key ways of ensuring LGBTQ+ communities are supported and health inequalities are reduced. Use the LGBT Consortium’s member directory to have a look for local or online support.
Marking LGBTQ+ dates of importance on the calendar at home, work and in the community are ways to raise awareness of the particular experiences of LGBTQ+ communities and increase visibility and affirmative support for these groups.
Lastly, the importance of monitoring sexual orientation, gender identities and trans status cannot be underestimated as shown LGBT Foundation’s Good Practice Guide. Sharing your demographic information with services and organisations can seem daunting if you don’t know what is happening with that information but it is a fundamental step in ensuring services understand the community and begin to meet the needs of and support the LGBTQ+ accessing their services. It is up to organisations to implement this properly and effectively but understanding why it is important can make LGBTQ+ people feel more comfortable in disclosing. Simply, “if we’re not counted, we don’t count”.
Training and evidence courtesy of LGBT Foundation accessed June 2023.
Published by Keisha Tomlinson on 05/07/23