Health Disparities In the LGBT community
QUESTION
How to close the gap on health disparities in the LGBT community
ANSWER
Closing the Gap on Health Disparities in the LGBT Community
The LGBT community is an umbrella of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual terms. A lesbian is a homosexual woman, and a bisexual gets attracted to all genders. A transgender person identifies with both genders biographically, while a gay is a homosexual woman or man (Garcia-Perez, 2020). The community faces a lack of proper answers about their sexual or gender identity, which exposes them to difficulty in estimating their healthcare needs. Most LGBT members fear discrimination due to their sexual expression, orientation, and identity. Such fears increase the chances of posttraumatic stress conditions, depression, self-destruction tendencies, and substance use. Statistics show that 40% of LGBT youths are homeless, leading to increased sexual, physical abuse, mental health problems, and STDs (Hafeez et al., 2017). This essay explores ways experts can use to close the gap in health disparities within the LGBT community.
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According to Garcia-Perez (2020), some specific health disparities this community experiences include inappropriate illness-related knowledge, lowered therapeutic alliance with clinicians, insufficient schedules for screening contagious illnesses, and minimum measures for STDs prevention and interventions. Properly bridging such a gap calls for the community, medical personnel, teachers, and parents to work together (Brittany Abeln, 2019). These stakeholders collectively ensure the LGBT community attains its full health potential. Research by Brittany Abeln (2019) shows that environmental and structural factors act as health determiners for individuals and communities. Due to such determiners, there is a need for an LGBT human agency to highlight different healthcare experiences (Garcia-Perez, 2020). Policymakers will then use such differences to inform relevant stakeholders about updated media campaigns addressing healthcare disparities. While addressing inequality, stakeholders should also consider culturally proper messages and remain at the forefront in facilitating these interventions (Hafeez et al., 2017). Healthcare providers are also expected to maintain high levels of cultural sensitivity and ensure they meet the needs of these members.
Due to a lack of educational information and training on LGBT problems, nursing and medical students and other relevant professionals should participate in educational programs. Further, relevant stakeholders should ensure rigorous implementation of the LGBT cultural training program involving nonprofessional and professional staff (Brittany Abeln, 2019). The training should promote nurturing abilities and respectful and empathic care nonjudgmentally to the population. As a long-term strategy, stakeholders should tackle the lack of health insurance. Efforts should be made to ensure an expansion of healthcare coverage to minimize the disparities LGBT encounters (Hafeez et al., 2017). Policymakers should formulate bills responsible for expanding the definition of disparities in population to include the LGBT population should get formulated (Brittany Abeln, 2019).
In conclusion, the LGBT community remains sensitive and prone to issues such as lack of open communication, fear of judgment, and lack of health insurance, which create health care disparities (Garcia-Perez, 2020). To properly close this gap, policymakers must actively involve appropriate stakeholders in researching specific inequality. The findings will then help address the inequity in a culturally respectful manner. Medical and nursing students should undergo mandatory LGBT educational programs to equip them with strategies to handle LGBT patients. Long-term courses include the formulation of bills incorporating the community into the meaning of the disparity population.
References
Brittany Abeln, B. S. N. (2019). Bridging the gap of mental health inequalities in the transgender population: The role of nursing education. Issues in Mental Health Nursing. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01612840.2019.1565876
Garcia-Perez, J. (2020). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer + Latinx youth mental health disparities: A systematic review. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 32(4), 440-478. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538720.2020.1764896
Hafeez, H., Zeshan, M., Tahir, M. A., Jahan, N., & Naveed, S. (2017). Health Care Disparities Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: A Literature Review. Cureus, 9(4), e1184. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.1184