HRC Foundation, SAGE Partner on LGBTQ Elder Care Equality Index

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation and SAGE have partnered to create a new resource that looks into and provides a template for long-term care geared toward LGBTQ elders.

The two groups published the first edition of the Long-Term Care Equality Index (LEI), a "benchmarking tool" that, a joint press release said, "evaluates long-term care communities based on the equity and inclusion of their LGBTQ residents and patients.

"This initial report does not score long-term care communities, but instead includes research data on how many long-term care communities currently have LGBTQ-inclusive policies and lays out how organizations can participate in the LEI and improve their policies," the release detailed.

The new LEI comes after SAGE partnered with another group, the AARP, for a report published earlier this year that examined disparities faced by LGBTQ elders in New York. As reported previously at EDGE, that report revealed significant findings, including concerns of inadequate insurance coverage being a barrier to healthcare; a large percentage (one third) of LGBTQ people over 50 living in poverty; and a reliance within the LGBTQ community for care, as friends, rather than family members, provide one another with assistance.

The new LEI surveyed "over 115 of the largest continuing care retirement communities and skilled nursing facilities" and found that "only 62% of these communities included a resident non-discrimination policy on their website."

Of those, "83% of those statements had an enumerated list o protected classes," numbering 60 communities – but "only 18% were fully LGBTQ inclusive".

Elders are among the most vulnerable in the LGBTQ community, with many of them not having the family or social support networks that heterosexual contemporaries enjoy. Moreover, LGBTQ elders may feel a need to retreat back into the closet for fear, the LEI noted, that "they might be refused or receive limited care; be in danger of neglect or abuse, or face verbal or physical harassment."

A lack of "consistent or explicit anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people" at the federal level exacerbates disparities in the quality of care that LGBTQ elders receive, and those who are also BIPOC – 20% of LGBTA elders, the report noted – suffer "the worst health outcomes among the community."

Relying mainly on self-reported data, the new LEI compiled information drawn from 184 long-term care communities and profiled several major eldercare facilities whose policies and proactive measures could serve as a blueprint for other organizations.

One of the most proactive is Chaparral House in Berkeley, California, which "had been involved in health care in the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic," and so has deep-rooted credibility as an LGBTQ-inclusive skilled nursing facility, with its reputation being burnished and spread for years via word of mouth.

NYC Health + Hospitals, "the largest public health system in the country," was also profiled. The LEI noted that "it became the first U.S. public health system to mandate LGBTQ training for all staff" a decade ago.

United Church Homes, also profiled, operates "across 14 states and in two Native American nations," the LEI noted. Even as lawmakers in various states pass anti-LGBTQ bills that give medical professionals, and others, license to refuse care and treatment to LGBTQ people, purportedly for religious or moral reasons, one executive with the system – Rev. Beth Long-Higgins – spoke about "ministering to marginalized" and how "LGBTQ people fit into the population of vulnerable older adults" who deserve equal treatment, respect, and dignity.

Another long-term care organization profiled in the index, Watermark, was proactive in its efforts to bring equality to its care, with President and CEO David Barnes reaching out to SAGE in 2016. Together, SAGE and Watermark created a training program.

In a happy surprise, Watermark's Jeff Jarnigan reflected, "We underestimated our residents' potential for acceptance," concerned that residents "in certain areas of the country would not be accepting."

Said Jarnigan: "We have not seen that."

HRC President David Alphonse spoke to the need for long-term care communities "to take the lead on LGBTQ inclusion." As "the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and SAGE... continue working to ensure that LGBTQ people at all stages of life have safe and equitable access to inclusive long-term care," the new Long-term Care Equality Index will serve as a benchmark for future progress.