Helping Older People to Thrive in later Life
Hospice UK: Strengthening outreach in LGBTQ+ communities
In the UK, LGBTQ+ people experience significant health inequalities in terms of health outcomes, healthcare service provision, and health risk factors.
Research by NHS Employers found that 14 per cent of LGBTQ+ individuals report having avoided accessing healthcare and treatment for fear of discrimination, rising to nearly two in five (37 per cent) for trans people.
The Freemasons’ Charity has a long-standing, partnership with Hospice UK, working in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. One main component of this partnership is an annual grant programme on a specific theme each year which provides one-off project grants to hospices.
Through this grant programme, the Freemasons’ Charity have helped to improve connections within LGBTQ+ communities, on behalf of Freemasons, to ensure that hospice care is tailored to consider personal preferences so that everyone who needs it, is provided with the best support possible.
For example, St Luke’s Hospice in Winsford received a £22,000 grant through the Freemasons’ Charity towards promoting equality and increasing accessibility to Cheshire hospices for the LGBTQ+ community.
With the goal of tackling inequalities, increasing accessibility and fighting discrimination and exclusion, the need for this project grew from conversations around ensuring that three hospices across Cheshire proactively engage and support LGBTQ+ people who access or experience end of life care.
The funding provided allowed the hospices to hire an LGBTQ+ Facilitator to work across the three hospices, making positive changes on an organisational level and building connections within the wider Cheshire community.
Our long-term goals are to make sure that people don’t perceive hospices to be something they can’t access. We want to remove any barriers for anybody accessing end of life care.
Through resources, training and conversation, the LGBTQ+ Facilitator role works to support staff and build a confident culture of inclusivity and open and honest conversations with other members of staff, patients and visitors.
The introduction of the role has also allowed greater engagement with the LGBTQ+ community by building connections with Chester Pride, who are supporting the hospices in becoming more LGBTQ+ inclusive. They are also helping to embed the community’s voice into the development process, ensuring that feedback is heard and acted upon.
Also, through the partnership with Hospice UK, ellenor received £30,000 to hire a new member of staff focusing on equality, diversity and inclusion for staff, patients and volunteers.
Ellenor provide hospice care for both adults and children across communities in North Kent and Bexley. Recently they’ve been focusing on equality, diversity and inclusion, designing several outreach programmes to engage with different communities.
By developing a dedicated role for community outreach, they are ensuring that inclusive hospice care is available for everyone in the area:
Engagement with LGBTQ+ communities is about getting out there, getting visible, reaching out to the organisations that support these communities in our area. We’ve reached out to the people who run our two local pride marches and taking part helps us build trust and understand how we can support them.
I think it is so important to let people know they are welcome and we are non-judgemental so they can open up to us. If people feel they need to hide a crucial part of themselves, I don’t think we can reach the level of trust we would like to.
The long-term goal of these projects is to tackle the inequalities faced by LGBTQ+ people when receiving end of life care, ensuring that people do not perceive hospices as a place they cannot access.
