All of our services are provided for our LGBTQ community. In fact, when designing our enhanced living services, we focused first on our LGBTQ community and considered how the best aspects of our lives could then transfer across all those we provide services for. We know that being able to be Yourself with the people You choose to be part of your life is essential to our LGBTQ community. We believe in providing services for our community by our community.
Members of our LGBTQ community have historically experienced barriers in accessing health care in acute, community, and home care environments. More recently, LGBTQ specific health care issues are being considered, studied, and documented, resulting in best practice service models being developed. Through this work, it is evident (and we know) that the health status of many in the LGBTQ community is compromised due to many factors including societal prejudice, lack of education for health care professionals on LGBTQ issues, and the reluctance of many LGBTQ to seek out support and openly communicate issues of sexual orientation or gender identity. These vulnerabilities are often increasingly evident for older LGBTQ but are an issue for many of our community at any age.
Dean Malone, CEO PlumLiving, speaks with Susan Moore of Bell Alliance about Plum Living's LGBTQ enhanced living services and the challenges faced by the community when seeking support.
GEN SILENT The Generation that fought hardest to come out are going back in... to Survive
What would you do if you were old, disabled or ill - and the person feeding you put down the spoon and said that you are going to hell unless you change your sexual preference? Gen Silent is the critically-acclaimed documentary from filmmaker Stu Maddox, that asks six LGBT seniors if they will hide their friends, their spouses- their entire lives in order to survive in the care system. Their surprising decisions are captured through intimate access to their day-to-day lives over the course of a year. It puts a face on what experts in the film call an epidemic: gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender older people so afraid of discrimination by caregivers or bullying by other seniors that many simply go back into the closet.
Film from Project Visibility, Boulder CO. Aging & Disability Services. This short film shares the experiences and challenges of older LGBT when accessing care and supported living. The issues presented in this film are equally relevant for LBGT in Canada. (Run time 22:22)
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