LGBT Seniors

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Ageing & Seniors' Items of Interest.

Care Connect

Care Connect provides aged care packages specifically for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) older adults from South East Queensland.

These aged care packages include:

Community Aged Care Package (CACP)
Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH)
Extended Aged Care at Home Dementia (EACHD).

CACP, EACH and EACHD packages offer a plan of support and care for older people who have care needs and who are living at home. All packages are individually coordinated and help older adults remain active in their communities.

Care Connect offers LGBTI-specific CACP, EACH and EACHD packages in the following localities: Brisbane, Redcliffe, Caboolture, Pine Rivers, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich West Moreton and Gold Coast.

Care Connect works in close partnership with Healthy Communities (formerly QAHC, Queensland Association for Healthy Communities). Healthy Communities is the leading LGBT community organisation in Queensland.

For more infomrmation visit their website, or call Care Connect.
Web: http://www.careconnect.org.au/Clientservices/Agedcareservices/LGBTIagedcareprograms.aspx
Phone: 07 3867 2200

LGBT Seniors' Groups

LGBT Ageing Action Group (QAHC)

· Do you work in the aged care/seniors sector?

· Do you have an interest in the needs of LGBT seniors?

· Are you LGBT yourself?

If you answered yes to any of these, you are invited to join and attend meetings of the LGBT Ageing Action Group. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Ageing Action Group is facilitated by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC), Queensland’s LGBT health and community development NGO. The group brings together LGBT seniors, LGBT community groups and aged care/seniors service providers. The role of the group is to:

involve LGBT older people in older people’s services & representative structures
identify the needs of older LGBT people
identify the needs of service provides in caring for older LGBT people
train and develop older people’s services on LGBT issues
develop LGBT specific projects or services
promote older people’s services among LGBT people
The group meets quarterly. Next meeting is 9th November, 3pm – 4:30pm at QAHC Brisbane (30 Helen St, Teneriffe).

Dates in 2011 are: 16 Feb, 15 June, 19 Oct.
More information on the work of the group, minutes, action plan etc can be found at www.qahc.org.au/seniors If you have any questions, or would like more information, please contact Paul Martin on 3017 1791 or pmartin@qahc.org.au

LGBTI Legal Service

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex Legal Service Inc is a newly established non-profit and unfunded community-based legal service which began service provision on July 7th, 2010. The service seeks to assist Queensland LGBTI communities to gain access to justice through the provision of legal and social welfare services. We will also be offering community legal education activities in order to increase awareness of legal rights and responsibilities for LGBTI communities in Queensland and will be actively involved in advocating for law reform and human rights.

The LGBTI Legal Service Inc has been established by and continues to be overseen by a management committee of individuals representing the diverse communities under the LGBTI banner.
The LGBTI Legal Service operates from space generously supplied by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities www.qahc.org.auand they can be contacted at:

Address: 30 Helen Street
              Teneriffe QLD 4006
Phone:     0401 936 232
Email:      lgbti.legalservice@gmail.com

The drop-in service will be operating on Wednesday nights from 6pm. Clients arriving after 7:30 cannot be accepted.

Mature Aged Men

A social club for gay men and their admirers. Meet at the Sportsman Hotel
the last Saturday of the month all year round at 4.30pm.

www.acon.org.au

Older Wiser Lesbians (OWLS)

Social group for Lesbians aged 35 and over, situated in Brisbane.

www.owlsbrisbane.com.au

Information, Research and Current Issues

Ageing Issues for older LGBT Australians

Older LGBT people are not all the same, there are generational differences within this diverse group. Those who grew up pre gay liberation have endured a lifetime of having been vilified as 'sinners' by the church, 'criminals' in law, and pathologised by medicine. Consequently, this group experiences ageing differently and has distinct needs compared to the baby boomer cohort which is now approaching retirement. After a number of decades of social progress, this cohort has lived openly as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. However, the current invisibility of LGBT issues in government ageing policies and the aged care sector in general means that older LGBT Australians do not now and will not in the future have access to adequate support and care to address their health and wellbeing needs. For many, getting older means an increased fear of being "outed" after a lifetime of avoiding disclosure, or a fear of being sent back into the closet to avoid facing discrimination at a particularly vulnerable time in their lives. This information is provided courtesy of LGBT Health website.

www.lgbthealth.org.au/ageing

University of Queensland Research Project: Diversity & Older People's Care Networks

• Are you aged 60 years or over?
• Do you identify as gay or lesbian?
• Do you receive care or emotional support from other peoplein relation to a health need or disability?

We need you for a research project funded bythe University of Queensland about the networks of people who provide care to gay and lesbian seniors.
We would like to interview you, as well as the people involved in your care. This may include partners, family members and friends, as well as paid or employed care providers.
Total confidentiality guaranteed. If you change your mind about participation - no worries! Interviews at times and places convenient to participants.
If you would like to be involved or know someone who might be interested or for more information contact:
Mark Hughes T: 0405 386 976, E: m.hughes5@uq.edu.au
Sue Kentlyn T: 3379 7273, E: dryad@internode.on.net

Dementia, Lesbians and Gay Men
Alzheimer's Australia - Living with dementia
Paper 15 October 2009
Heather Birch

Alzheimer’s Australia, ACON – Australia’s largest community-based gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgender and Intersex (GLBTI) health and HIV/AIDS organisation – and Aged and
Community Services Association of NSW & ACT are pleased to announce the new
discussion paper, ‘Dementia, Lesbian and Gay Men’ which was launched by the Hon. Michael
Kirby, former Justice of the High Court of Australia, on Thursday 19 November 2009.

Alzheimer’s Australia’s discussion paper, ‘Dementia, Lesbian and Gay Men’, provides
practical advice on the issues many lesbians and gay men with dementia and their carers
may face. In addition, it is a valuable resource for practitioners working in health care and
related fields.