Educating about health, respecting patient confidentiality and breaking down information silos were just some of the topics addressed in a town hall meeting about the health needs of LGBT youths that was sponsored by Howard Brown Health Center June 16.
No LGBT youth attended the meeting, where attendance was sparse, but participants did speak with HBHC officials about some issues they thought were pressing in delivering quality health care to young people. The session was facilitated by Imani Rupert, director of Broadway Youth Center, and Kristin Keglovitz Baker, associate medical director at HBHC.
Barb Bolsen, vice-president of programs at The Night Ministry, spoke of how the American health care system is structured so as not to be user-friendly for young people.
"I don't think out current healthcare system is friendly to anyone who has lax resources, but it's particularly not well-designed for young people," Bolsen noted. "Even insured young people fall between the cracks. It's full of barriers that I don't think young people are particularly equipped to overcome."
Those problems are exacerbated when the patient has limited financial resources, she added. "When you literally walk in the door you feel very intimidated. If you don't have a health care card you don't feel like you're welcome there."
Activist Alison Stanton, who recently spearheaded the development of a website that aggregates resource information for homeless LGBT youth, added that many young people are uncomfortable being open about their sexuality or other issues with their physician because they are unsure about what rules of confidentiality apply to patients who are underage. Stanton said that she got "rude awakenings with providers sharing with my parents."
Andy McCrea, a member of HBHC's Community Advisory Board, said that society largely does not do a good job "[educating] youth on the importance of health and the importance of their well-being … We don't do a lot of preventative care. I know, as an 18-year-old, I felt invincible."
Stanton noted that at the Chicago Summit on LGBT Youth Homelessness, many participants wished for a more holistic and all-inclusive approach to the delivery of health care. Bolsen agreed, adding, "Health is almost never one-stop shopping. … In the social service world, we tend to silo things … and then we silo people off into separate health and mental health [categories]."
The participants also discussed how documentation, as well as the manner in which a physician addresses and refers to the patient, is also important.
"The pronoun game is huge, specially for someone who identifies as pansexual," Stanton said. "I'm lucky to have someone for a general practitioner, who is very open."
Bolsen said, "You have to train your staff [also], and it has to be ongoing—and you have to build some accountability stuff into that."
Riley Johnson, who is a co-developer of RAD (Referral Aggregator Database) Remedy, a website that, when launched, will offer Yelp!-style reviews of providers, added that young people should somehow be afforded the opportunities to continue with the same physicians as they age.
"That gives them the ability to have continuity of care across their lifespan, and the provider can grow with them and meet them where they are at," Johnson said.
