Lavender Health – LGBTQ Resource Center

Call for Abstracts – Lesbian Health Research

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Peggy L Chinn

The Lesbian Health Fund (LHF), a program of GLMA, is currently accepting proposals for research on lesbian health. The deadline to submit is February 1, 2016.

About LHF

Founded in 1992, the LHF has awarded more than $840,000 to fund lesbian health research, and is the only US research fund dedicated solely to the unique health needs of lesbians, other sexual minority women (SMW) and their families.

Today, LHF remains committed to improving the health of lesbians and other sexual minority women over the lifespan, from early childhood, through adolescence, and adulthood, including aging. There is still great need to understand how social determinants, especially race and ethnicity, influence the health and wellbeing of lesbians, other SMW and their families.

Priority Research Areas:

Understanding social, family and interpersonal influences as sources of stress or support
Eliminating inequalities in health care, including barriers to care, and improving quality of care and utilization rates
Development and testing of interventions to address mental and physical health needs of lesbians and other SMW, including but not limited to depression, identity related issues, eating disorders, substance abuse, obesity, cancer risks, cardiovascular disease and sexually transmitted infections
Sexual and reproductive health, including family & parenting issues

Many applications are for small projects ($500 – $10,000) structured to provide pilot data for subsequent research. Publication in a peer-reviewed journal is expected, and priority is given to the best proposals with the greatest likelihood of securing future funding from other sources.

Proposals for the next grant cycle are due on February 1, 2016. Click here for information on how to apply. Click here for a list of previously funded grants.

Please forward this announcement to anyone who might be interested. GLMA Board Members and LHF Advisory Committee Members or paid consultants are ineligible to submit grants. Please contact Shalini Batra at lhf@glma.org, or 202-600-8037202-600-8037, ext. 308 with any questions.

Posted in Call for papers/abstracts | Leave a comment

Trans Day of Remembrance

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Jennifer Lane

November is a month of remembrance. November 20^th is an important day in the transgender community. It is a day to remember members of the community who have been murdered in hate crimes. As an ally of the trans community, I will be attending the local ceremony. As a member of the queer community and a healthcare professional, I feel it’s important that I be there. Being supportive to a community that must self-organize a day of remembrance as an act of solidarity and resistance in response to countless unsolved murders (and complete and utter cis-apathy) seems quite necessary to me. As I am in attendance, I plan on listening to what is said so I can learn how to better support the most vulnerable members of the queer community. I think that it is important that healthcare professionals start listening. We need to find out what it is like to navigate a system that has a limited understanding of how cis-privilege shapes the medical space. The barriers must be countless.

For those healthcare professionals who have yet to be reflexive on the impact of their heteronormative cis-exclusive practice, use today as an invitation to start listening. You can then join those of us who have already begun the process of informing our practice to be more inclusive. It promises to be a life-long and humbling learning experience.

To those who have lost and for those who continue to experience both micro and macro-aggressions on a daily basis: please know that there are healthcare professionals who are listening with the goal to hold space with you and advocate for trans-accessible healthcare.

I share the following links in the spirit of continuing the conversation:

http://www.glaad.org/tdor

http://sherbourne.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Guidelines-and-Protocols-for-Comprehensive-Primary-Care-for-Trans-Clients-2015.pdf

My favorite gender justice center is South House.

Posted in Activism, Events, Join the discussion, LGBTQ Human Rights | Leave a comment

Welcome Jennifer Searle – Joining the LavenderHealth Blog Team!

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Peggy L Chinn

We are delighted to welcome Jennifer Searle to our team of bloggers!

Jennifer is a queer-identified intersectional feminist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She holds a BScN, as well as a BSc in Biology and Social Anthropology, both from Dalhousie University. In addition to beginning what will certainly be a rewarding career as an RN, Jennifer is also currently working as a Research Assistant at Dalhousie for Dr. Lisa Goldberg (who is also on our Blog Team). Their research uses queer and feminist phenomenological methodologies to study and explain (in an attempt to improve upon) gender & heteronomative practices in healthcare. Jennifer is excited to be included in such important work as a representative of the LGBTQ+ community, and to continue to educate herself on the most current healthcare practices and theories.

We are delighted to have Jennifer join us, and look forward to what I know will be valuable contributions to this blog!

Posted in Blog Information, People | Leave a comment

New Workplace Climate Scale!

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Peggy L Chinn

Have you ever experienced or witnessed conditions that harm workers who are LGBTQ? Perhaps you have not even thought about this problem, but we know that it exists in far too many situations. In an effort to address this issue, the GLMA Nursing Section has launched the Workplace Climate Project to encourage changes designed to overcome workplace homophobia. The Scale consists of 10 items that cover the most fundamental ways that a workplace can become affirming and inclusive of LGBTQ workers.

There are 3 major ways that you can use the scale:

As a teaching/presentation tool. Each of the items on the Workplace Climate scale are presented here in a slide show
As a self-assessment tool. Here you can see all 10 items of the Scale, and download a PDF file of the Scale to use as a handout to be used to assess everyone’s knowledge of their workplace.
To report your unit’s “Perfect 10.” When your workplace unit has achieved all 10 items on the Scale, use the electronic form here to register your achievement with GLMA Nursing! They will post your achievement on the GLMA Nursing website and announce your achievement!

In addition to the suggestions that the GLMA Nursing website proposes, we encourage you to use this resource and find your own creative ways to promote an affirming and inclusive workplace for all!

Posted in Best practices, GLMA Nursing, Nursing, Welcoming Environment | Leave a comment

New Ruling for the Collection of LGBT Data in EHR Systems!

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Michael Johnson

If you have not heard yet, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a ruling that is a huge advancement in the provision of health care to LGBT people. In the new final rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC), all electronic health systems (EHR) certified under Stage 3 of Meaningful Use are required to allow users to record, change, and access data on sexual orientation and gender identity!

If you are not familiar with Meaningful Use, here is a website that gives a quick overview of the objectives and different stages. In essence, Meaningful Use is using EHR technology to improve quality and safety, engage patients, and improve care coordination. Providers and hospitals need to meet certain criteria to attain Meaningful Use, qualifying them for payment incentives.

Although this latest ruling does NOT require providers and hospitals to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data, it does require EHR vendors to build these questions in their systems. Moreover, the ruling adopts replacing outdated and offensive terminology and replacing them with best practice questions.

It is a victory in the advancement of understanding LGBT health disparities!

The Fenway Institute published a press release on this announcement and is worth the read!