International Perspectives on the Needs of Older LGBTQIA+ People
This workshop will examine the distinct needs of older LGBTQIA+ people, drawing on international perspectives and evidence of challenges such as isolation, mental health disparities and barriers to care and discrimination, to highlight key gaps and areas of inconsistency in how these needs are recognised.
We will bring together global scholars, practitioners, and community representatives for discussion and an optional consensus exercise aimed at developing an international framework and identifying a set of ‘core needs’ of older LGBTQIA+ people and fostering future collaborative work.
This workshop will explore the distinct needs of older LGBTQ+ people, drawing on international perspectives to identify gaps in research, policy, and practice. Older LGBTQ+ adults represent a growing and diverse population who face unique challenges as they age, including social isolation, higher rates of mental health difficulties, barriers in accessing health and social care, and persistent experiences of discrimination. Despite these challenges, their needs are poorly recognised within ageing, frailty, and palliative care research, as well as in health and social care practice more broadly.
The event will be framed around an ongoing scoping review, which synthesises the ways older LGBTQ+ people’s needs have been recognised in research and in need identification tools used in health and social care practice. The scoping review has identified both strengths and limitations in existing approaches, revealing the lack of consensus on what constitutes the distinct and pressing needs for people who identify under this banner.
ORGANISERS
Dr Richard Green, School of Health Sciences, University of Surrey
