{"id":25041,"date":"2024-05-17T08:47:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T00:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=media-release&p=25041"},"modified":"2024-05-17T08:47:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T00:47:22","slug":"significant-lgbtiqa-stigma-remains-in-wa-healthcare-system-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/significant-lgbtiqa-stigma-remains-in-wa-healthcare-system-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Significant LGBTIQA+ stigma remains in WA healthcare system, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new Â鶹ֱ²¥ report<\/a> commissioned by Living Proud<\/a> has revealed the significant challenges LGBTIQA+ people often face accessing healthcare and calls for long-term funding and action across state government to ensure all Western Australians can access essential services and treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ongoing experiences of stigma, discrimination and exclusion continue to impact on the health and social outcomes for LGBTIQA+ people in Western Australia, highlighting ongoing lack of action to address health disparities in these communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Released on the\u00a0International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia<\/a>, the report shares findings from Curtin\u2019s Collaboration for Evidence Research and Impact in Public Health<\/a> (CERIPH), which collected data on Western Australia\u2019s LGBTIQA+ community\u2019s experiences accessing healthcare, what supports are in place and what more needs to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study lead Dr Jonathan Hallett<\/a> said LGBTIQA+ people still faced discrimination when accessing healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been improvements in the healthcare system, but when we spoke to study participants they were still sharing some really awful stories of direct stigma, or a lack of understanding or assumptions about their lives,\u201d Dr Hallett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe heard of people visiting GPs or health services for a particular issue which had absolutely nothing to do with their gender identity or sexuality, but that topic still became the focus of the discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne participant was so fearful of how they\u2019d be treated if they accessed a mainstream regional health service that their condition ended up worsening and landed them in emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CERIPH collaborated on the report with Living Proud, with funding from the WA Primary Health Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living Proud Chair Barry Cosker said it addressed a critical need for comprehensive, evidence-based insights to help vulnerable people overcome significant health and wellbeing challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe this report will help usher in a new, informed approach to understanding and responding to LGBTIQA+ health needs and priorities in Western Australia,\u201d Mr Cosker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will assist policy direction and strategic planning across the entire primary healthcare ecosystem, forming a foundation for future efforts to reduce the health and wellbeing disparities the LGBTIQA+ community continues to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are many LGBTIQA+-specific resources available, the report found they were often community and volunteer-driven, which limited the ability to adequately reach everyone who needed their services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese organisations have a really strong understanding of what the community needs, but they’re also incredibly under-resourced,\u201d Dr Hallett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are crucial services, but they aren\u2019t being sufficiently supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey need secure, long-term government funding so they can provide services to all who need them, including in regional areas where LGBTIQA+ people experience even greater inequity and barriers to accessing appropriate and safe healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Findings also identified significant gaps in the way data on LGBTIQA+ people is collected and reported, particularly in relation to trans and non-binary people and those with variations of sex characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe quality of data is still lacking, rendering LGBTIQA+ communities invisible and undermining service planning in many areas,\u201d Dr Hallett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report calls for wide-spread adoption of Australian Bureau of Statistics standards to increase data quality and enhance LGBTIQA+ communities\u2019 visibility in health and social service data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also highlights the need to encourage more LGBTIQA+ people into the health workforce and calls for improved training for current and future professionals so they can provide quality care to the LGBTIQA+ community.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Â鶹ֱ²¥ report commissioned by Living Proud has revealed the significant challenges LGBTIQA+ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4457,"featured_media":25042,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"6183,5974,5978,5957,8006,4981","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,35],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-25041","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-public-health"],"acf":{"experts":false,"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":[22646,24381]},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LGBTIQA-healthcare-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Jeremic","display_name":"Samuel Jeremic"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/25041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/25041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25041"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=25041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}