LGBTQ seniors in N.L. need social connections, boosts to long-term care training: report
CBC
As Pamela Sheaves approaches 60, the usual concerns about aging are on the horizon.
There are worries of loneliness, and trying to stay independent as long as possible. But as a member of Newfoundland and Labrador's LGBTQ community, as she looks to her future decades, other thoughts weigh on her, too.
"Acceptance. That's so important," said Sheaves, who lives in St. John's. "The ability to feel safe and secure in care, and to have the supports within the community."
Acceptance and safety aren't guaranteed, she said, having heard from others' experiences, particularly in long-term care.
"Many seniors in the LGBT+ community, out of fear, go back into the closet," she said. "This is detrimental to persons' mental health and physical health as well.… There's a great deal of fear there."
A new report, considered the first of its kind, sheds more light on what faces LGBTQ seniors in Newfoundland and Labrador, and offers up ideas for change. The report by Quadrangle N.L., a group that seeks to bolster the province's LGBTQ community, involved surveying and interviewing community members over the age of 50, as well as long-term care providers.
While national studies on LGBTQ seniors have drawn a little bit of data from this province, the smaller community in Newfoundland and Labrador means getting a better sense of the landscape here can help create targeted responses, said one of the report's researchers.
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