Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

HBHC's HEALE program: Educating nurses about LGBTQ elders

by Liz Baudler
2014-07-02

This article shared 6497 times since Wed Jul 2, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


"When a person's getting older and they're faced with the prospect of going into long-term care, they're being taken out of their home environment. Gay or straight: no one wants to do that," said Cecilia Hardacker, geriatric trainer at the Howard Brown Health Center ( HBHC ).

Hardacker is one of the trainers of the HEALE ( Health Education about LGBT Elders ) program. The normal difficulties of aging can be compounded when sexuality comes into play. The HEALE program, in the words of a paper Hardacker coauthored about the program's work, "target[s] nurses and healthcare staff and is focused on the treatment of LGBT elders, a population that is largely misunderstood and discriminated against in health-care settings."

HBHC Vice President of Development and Communication Barbara Tieder mentioned a community meeting that HBHC hosted for older adults. "We heard a couple of folks in the group talk about the horrific experience they had being in assisted living or a nursing home."

Hardacker told the story of a man who lost his support group of friends because of a caretaker's perception of their sexualities. "We're so aware of when someone's attitude changes. It can be a look, it can be a comment, it can be something really off-handed that can just terrify a person." Within a year, she said, his friends stopped visiting and the patient died alone.

According to Hardacker, this is common. "A lot of [older adults] will say, "I'll go back in the closet" or trans people will say, "I'll wear those other clothes" to protect themselves, because there's nobody there to protect them."

"Nurses are supposed to be advocates for your health," Tieder said. "They're the people that see you every day. A doctor will interact with you for a certain period of time, but a nurse is there for however long that shift is. If they're not your advocate, how do you feel comfortable in getting that care?"

The program travels to many Chicago area long-term care facilities, hospitals, and nursing schools, including Rush's College of Nursing, Illinois Masonic, and all the Veterans' Affairs ( VA ) hospitals in the Chicago area. They've even trained nurses in Minnesota and New York. HEALE has several modules, or areas of study, including a general familiarization with the LGBTQ community and clinical information such as particular health issues a certain group might face, including a whole module about trans health.

"It really does make a dramatic impact on people," Hardacker said, "We hear stories from people saying, "Gosh, it's made such a difference, we had such and such a patient come in and we had a really excellent experience with them as opposed to back in the day when we had people who would whisper about it." At a hospital where Hardacker has run trainings for the past three years, she said nurses tell her that they feel empowered not only to help LGBT patients, but to correct others' inappropriate behavior towards those patients.

This anecdotal evidence is borne out in a research paper Hardacker and others at Howard Brown published in a 2014 issue of the Journal of Nursing Management. The program and training is funded through a three-year grant gained because of HEALE's research basis. Not only has Hardacker's team, in her words, "annihilated our numbers" when it comes to trained nurses, they demonstrate statistically significant gains in nurses' knowledge when it comes to LGBTQ issues both clinical and cultural.

For the next grant cycle, Hardacker is excited about the partnership HEALE has with the VA hospitals. "These hospitals are in fairly metropolitan areas and have access to the collar areas," she said. "It's the biggest healthcare network in the nation. If we can start to have an influence with that group of healthcare providers, that's awesome."

With the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the VA is starting to support LGBT veterans and their partners. According to Hardacker, for trans patients the VA will cover everything up to a gender affirming surgery and post-op care afterwards. But not having prior experience with these surgeries, staff will need more trainings, she said.

Education is valuable in places like Iron Mountain, Michigan, where there's a small population but a large VA hospital. "People would ask questions like, 'so do you think if a same-sex couple has kids, that those kids will be gay?' They're asking that in all sincerity, they just have not been exposed to it," Hardacker said. "The fundamental getting up in front of people and having them ask us any question is what makes it worth it. On the rare occasion where we get a question that makes us scratch our head a little bit, we think, 'how can I best answer this question to help open this person's mind to what they're really asking?'"

Even in Chicago, there are still knowledge gaps. "I get invited back to one of the inpatient mental health facilities here in Chicago often because they have particular issues with trans patients," Hardacker said. "It shocks me sometimes that that would be a place that would have that problem, but they continue to invite us back to help them and to train their staff."

Hardacker and her fellow trainers, Hector Salgado and Brian Jauregi, hope to get their grant renewed. For her, it's about connections beyond the training. Occasionally she's able to advise trainees about LGBT issues, or connect patients with resources at Howard Brown and elsewhere. "We're ambassadors for Howard Brown, for the healthcare that we provide," she said. It's clear, not just from nurses' comments and statistics, that HEALE has an impact. "Places keep inviting us back," Hardacker said, "which tells us, number one, that we're doing something right but, number two, that they really value the training."


This article shared 6497 times since Wed Jul 2, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Brown Elephant Returns To Northalsted
2024-03-26
Brown Elephant's Lake View location is moving to Northalsted and already accepting donations. Howard Brown Health, the largest LGBTQ+ health center in the midwest, operates three Brown Elephant resale shops in the Chicagoland area to help ...


Gay News

An interstate trans healthcare crisis: Illinois prepares for influx of people seeking gender-affirming care
2024-03-26
With hard-won rights, such as access to hormone replacement therapy or permission to use one's chosen pronouns in school, breaking down in states across the country, trans residents of all ages are left with a choice: ...


Gay News

Planned Parenthood of Illinois expands Orland Park health center
2024-03-26
--From a press release - ORLAND PARK, Ill. - Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) announces the expansion of its existing Orland Park Health Center at 14470 S. LaGrange Rd., Suite 106. The 1,800-square-foot expansion is projected to increase sexual and reproductive ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course
2024-03-18
Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

WORLD Leaked messages, Panama action, author dies at 32, Japan court, out athletes
2024-03-15
Hundreds of messages from an internal chat board for an international group of transgender health professionals were leaked in a report and framed as revealing serious health risks associated with gender-affirming care, including cancer, according to ...


Gay News

UK health service to stop routinely prescribing puberty blockers to minors
2024-03-14
NHS (National Health Service) England confirmed that children will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers at gender-identity clinics, the BBC reported. The decision came after a review found there was "not enough evidence" that they ...


Gay News

One Roof Chicago launches youth-focused workforce development program
2024-03-14
One Roof Chicago (ORC) is set to launch its first training, education and job placement program for LGBTQ+ young adults in late spring. This Community Health Workers and Elder Care program is a part of ORC's ...


Gay News

Howard Brown experts discuss advocacy and allyship for Chicago's trans community
2024-03-14
By Alec Karam - Howard Brown Health's Trans & Gender Diverse People's Rights & Patient Care panel convened March 12 to discuss both resources for—and opportunities to provide allyship to—the city's trans and gender diverse communities. The event hos ...


Gay News

Howard Brown Health faces October trial if settlement isn't reached with union
2024-03-13
Howard Brown Health could go to trial over unfair labor practice allegations if the LGBTQ+ health center doesn't reach a settlement with its agreement soon. Chicago's regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed ...


Gay News

Pro-choice activists protest crisis pregnancy center on International Women's Day
2024-03-11
The rainy weather on March 8 didn't deter a passionate group of pro-choice protesters from gathering in Old Town on International Women's Day. Following the opening of Women's Care Center—a crisis pregnancy center—directly next to Pl ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Altercation, mpox research, Univ. of Fla., George Santos, tech battle
2024-03-08
Video footage uploaded to Facebook showed an altercation between a state trooper and two prominent Philadelphia LGBTQ+ leaders, the Washington Blade reported, republishing an article from Philadelphia Gay News. Celena ...


Gay News

Pride 365 event emphasizes year-round support for LGBTQ+ employees
2024-03-07
Queer employees are queer all year-round. The need for employers to accordingly support and uplift them year-round was the core message at Howard Brown Health and Citywide Pride's Pride 365 "Out of Office to Out in ...


Gay News

AMA launches toolkit to increase screenings for HIV, STIs, hepatitis, tuberculosis
2024-03-06
Press release - CHICAGO — With disruptions in clinical care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and viral hepatitis across the U.S., the American Medical Association ...


Gay News

APA adopts policy supporting transgender, gender diverse and non-binary individuals
2024-02-28
From a press release: WASHINGTON—The American Psychological Association (APA) has adopted a landmark policy affirming evidence-based care for transgender, gender diverse and nonbinary children, adolescents and adults, noting that recent ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.