Little is known about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) senior population ages 55 and older. Changes in social tolerance during the past 30 years spawned an era of increased openness, greater expression of social diversity and some new civil rights protections, allowing LGBT seniors to live more openly. By 2010, approximately one in five residents in San Diego County, California will be seniors. Conservative estimates indicate that 7 percent of San Diego's seniors represent a new generation with specific needs. As the first cohort of this generation reaches retirement age, health agencies will be challenged to provide care for this LGBT senior population. In San Diego County, a comprehensive needs assessment and assets mapping is currently establishing a blueprint for community preparedness. Using a stratified sample, 450 LGBT seniors of varying health and living situations participated in a survey. These seniors represented varying ethnicities, gender, sexual orientations, and diverse age ranges. Results of this comprehensive LGBT needs assessment and assets mapping provide insight into the levels of LGBT senior preparedness, and serve as a guide for the necessary community response in areas of healthcare, access to services, housing, transportation, social support, mental health, HIV/AIDS care, civil rights and quality of life. In addition, the survey asked seniors to rank their needs relative to themselves and their peers and asked to predict their fears and expectancies over the next five years. Results provided new information that markedly characterizes LGBT seniors, and demonstrated their specific health and social challenges.
Learning Objectives: 1) To define barriers to healthcare services and other health-related vulnerabilities that LGBT seniors may face. 2.)The need to prioritize a local public health's community planning process to handle specific and unique needs of LGBT seniors, who represent a relatively new target population cohort. 3. Recognize how LGBT Seniors are uniquely characterized as a group relative to the manner which they priorize their healthcare needs, their preparedness for their own senior lifespan issues, and how they evaluate their fears and expectancies for the future, relative to their peers, with regard to issues of quality of life.
Keywords: Aging, Gay
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Alliance Healthcare Foundation, San Diego, California.
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.