In many communities, and especially San Francisco, senior care for members of the LGBT community is becoming a pressing issue. There are more elderly individuals in our country than ever before in history, and many of them are gay or lesbian individuals.
Regardless of what your personal feelings are about LGBT beliefs, it is impossible to deny that people deserve high quality care. You don’t need to agree with things like beliefs, lifestyle, or anything like that to come to this conclusion. Senior care is one of the things that everyone will need to at least think about at some point, and knowing that there are resources out there to help you is important. Finding and being able to use those resources is even more important.
Elderly individuals that need senior care should not have to fear what the consequences of their beliefs might be when it comes to care. Even if a caregiver disagrees with them, that caregiver should still be doing everything that he or she can to provide them with the best care possible.
Exacerbating matters, many LGBT elders have been isolated by their family members. This is a group of people who do not have the same family resources that many other seniors have. This is a group that is far more likely to live solitary lives. They are more likely to be neglected than other demographics.
This is a generation that has seen a lot of changes occur at the social level during their lives. A lot of that change has resulted in more rights for the LGBT community, but discrimination still exists. It is even present in the health care and human services industries. Unfortunately, this can result in a lesser quality of care for people that need extra help–including seniors. The downside is that people who need help are not as likely to seek it out if they are afraid of discrimination.
One of the realities of our world is that we will disagree with other people. Sometimes those disagreements are small, like what show to watch in the evening. Sometimes they are bigger, such as lifestyle, religion, or politics. The truth is, these things shouldn’t have an impact on the quality of care that’s received. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t get this freedom when it comes to their senior care. Discrimination doesn’t have a place in senior care.
If you have questions about care that is free from this kind of thing, please give us a call. We know that this can be a sensitive subject for some people, and we are respectful of that. However, just because you have beliefs about something–whether it’s your politics, LGBT lifestyle, or your religious beliefs, you are entitled to the best care. This is something that we feel strongly about and have taken great strides to help advocate for individuals regarding. Give us a call today to learn more about how we can help you and your find the appropriate care to help your loved one live independently in as happy and as healthy of a manner as possible.
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