LGBTQ+

Importance Of Finding LGBTQ+ Affirming Services

Accepting services for you and your care recipient involves trust and vulnerability. Both of you may be revealing personal information – a process that can sometimes be intimidating! This can be made even more challenging if either of you feel like you can’t be authentic with care providers. Finding care providers that understand LGBTQ+ perspectives and provide competent care will make accepting help that much easier.

Below are tips on how you can find LGBTQ+ affirming service providers.

Where To Look

Reach out to your local LGBTQ+ community centers, groups, or agencies. They will often have information on who to contact for LGBTQ+ affirming home care and healthcare services.
Click on this link to find a provider in your city that has been trained for LGBTQ+ competent care.
Ask friends, family, or community members who are in similar situations to suggest a service provider who made them feel comfortable.
Use your internet search engine to do a quick search of LGBTQ+ affirming services in your area. You may type something like “LGBTQ+ health services Arizona”, inserting the name of your state or city.

Questions To Ask

If you are unsure about whether the care services you’ve found are LGBTQ+ affirming, here are some questions you can ask them:

Have you served LGBTQ+ individuals in the past?
Have you and your staff been trained on how to provide competent care to the LGBTQ+ community?
Do you have openly distributed policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity? How do you enforce your policies?

Here are some questions you can investigate on your own:

Does this service provider use LGBTQ+ inclusive language when they speak to me? How about on their websites and pamphlets?
Are LGBTQ+ individuals represented in their printed materials?
Have they posted advertisements in LBGTQ+ affirming websites or newspaper?
What is my gut saying? Do I feel comfortable?