March 7, 2016
Caring for LGBT Elders: Project Visibility Training to be held March 28
Project Visibility: Person-Centered Care for LGBT elders
The deadline to register is noon on Friday, March 25
Boulder County, Colo. - Boulder County Area Agency on Aging is hosting a Project Visibility community-based training on Tuesday, March 28 in Longmont.
This workshop is designed to educate professional service care providers, community members, and friends and family members about the particular needs and strengths of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) elders.
- What: Project Visibility: Person-Centered Care for LGBT elders
- When: Tuesday, March 28, 2016
- Time: 8:45 a.m. registration and coffee, 9 a.m.-noon training
- Where: Longmont Senior Center, 910 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont
- Cost: Free of charge, though advance registration is required
Project Visibility is an award-winning training program developed by the Boulder County Area Agency on Aging, after they conducted extensive focus groups with area LGBT older adults.
Despite rights advances, LGBT older adults still worry about feeling forced back into the closet to receive the care they need. Commonly, living in long-term care homes, LGBT elders face a wall of assumptions about who they are and the lives they have led. LGBT Program Specialist and trainer Nancy Grimes shares, “LGBT older adults lived in a time when overt discrimination toward them was commonplace. Far fewer legal protections meant little recourse when their housing, jobs, and basic safety were threatened. Respectful care for LGBT elders involves an appreciation for the strengths and needs that accompany such history.”
Participants will view a short award-winning film in which elders speak about their lives, their strengths, wishes, and concerns about the aging services network. Trainees will gain tools and practice skills for creating welcoming environments, anticipating the questions and concerns of LGBT older adults, and intervening when discrimination or hostility occurs. Each participant will receive a resource-paced manual.