Another Senior Moment

Add this thought to the issues facing the over 50 LGBT population: Many do not feel comfortable coming out to their doctors or health care providers. Of those who do, discrimination is often the result.

A study by the McGill School of Social Work in Montreal, Canada on health care and treatment for lesbian and gay seniors living in Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax, found that many seniors would not come out to their doctors unless asked directly and that others reported mistreatment if their healthcare providers even suspected their sexual orientation.

One Vancouver senior who was quoted in the study said that she was ignored when she asked for help after one nurse had identified her as a lesbian from a newspaper article.

�From then on, I couldn’t get anyone to help me out of bed,” the woman told researchers.

In another shocking example, a gay senior citizen told researchers that he had a home care worker who, when he found out the man was gay, offered to help “save me from this blasphemous…thing.”

Researchers say that seniors are especially prone to mistreatment because they�re less likely to feel empowered enough to speak up for themselves, due to long-standing generational and societal fears and that when you mix people who have prejudice with people who have vulnerabilities, you often get abuse.

Not coming out to medical professionals is not limited to the elderly. A recent GayHealth.com survey says that more than 40 percent �rarely� or �never� even discuss their sexuality with their doctors. Another GayHealth.com survey reports that one-third had not �come out� to their healthcare provider at all.

But since seniors very often have acute health care needs, to not feel comfortable sharing aspects of their lives which may have an impact on their physical or mental state could have profound negative ramifications.

Changing how the medical profession, home health care providers and nursing homes treat lesbian and gay seniors will require a concerted effort of education and awareness by those who are young and energetic enough to take up the cause. Like other issues, it may reap benefits now and in the future.