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‘That would have been beneficial’: LGBTQ education for home‐care service providers
Author(s) -
Daley Andrea,
MacDonnell Judith A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
health and social care in the community
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.984
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1365-2524
pISSN - 0966-0410
DOI - 10.1111/hsc.12141
Subject(s) - lesbian , transgender , service provider , queer , nursing , health care , qualitative research , oppression , focus group , sociology , public relations , psychology , service (business) , medicine , gender studies , business , political science , politics , social science , marketing , anthropology , law
This paper reports qualitative findings from a pilot study that explored the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer ( LGBTQ ) education needs of home‐care service providers working in one large, urban Canadian city. The pilot study builds upon research that has documented barriers to health services for diversely situated LGBTQ people, which function to limit access to good‐quality healthcare. LGBTQ activists, organisations and allies have underscored the need for health provider education related to the unique health and service experiences of sexual and gender minority communities. However, the home‐care sector is generally overlooked in this important body of research literature. We used purposeful convenience sampling to conduct four focus groups and two individual interviews with a total of 15 professionally diverse home‐care service providers. Data collection was carried out from January 2011 to July 2012 and data were analysed using grounded theory methods towards the identification of the overarching theme, ‘provider education’ and it had two sub‐themes: (i) experiences of LGBTQ education; and (ii) recommendations for LGBTQ education. The study findings raise important questions about limited and uneven access to adequate LGBTQ education for home‐care service providers, suggest important policy implications for the education and health sectors, and point to the need for anti‐oppression principles in the development of education initiatives.