Policy vacuum on gay seniors
Gerontologist Dr Jo Harrison has called for sweeping reforms to the federal approach to the needs of gay and lesbian seniors.
Currently the only recognition of gay and lesbian seniors in federal policy or law are the 2008 changes to the Aged Care Act which recognised same-sex couples for the purpose of assessing fees and charges for residential care.
“What that’s created is a situation where an elderly same-sex couple fronting an aged care assessment team or Centrelink officer would have to come out in order to be eligible for benefits have been provided by this amendment,” Harrison said.
“But what the Commonwealth has not done is provide the sorts of sensitivity awareness training, changes to paperwork, notification of staff that has to go with that. They need to get advocates on the ground who can provide GLBTI advocacy, who can train staff, and who can begin to write the education modules.”
Harrison said gay and lesbian seniors should be designated as an official special needs group.
Groups currently recognised as special needs include indigenous seniors, culturally and linguistically diverse seniors, seniors in rural and remote areas, and seniors with dementia.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently announced the ‘Forgotten Australians’ — those abused in orphanages between 1930 and 1970 — would be listed as an aged care special needs group because of their particular fears about institutionalisation.
“In GLBTI seniors we have a group with not just particular fears of institutionalisation, but surrounding all aspects of aged care — who de-gay their homes when carers come, who are terrified of being outed or persecuted, and who’ve lived lives with the stigma of being treated as criminals and sinners,” Harrison said.
Harrison said the response from departmental officials is that current standards covering residents’ rights to their own cultural customs, lifestyle, privacy and dignity should also cover gay and lesbian seniors.
However, she said in the absence of federal anti-discrimination laws or specific guidelines covering gay and lesbian seniors this was unlikely to happen.
Recent reviews of the aged care accreditation scheme by the Department of Health and Ageing, and the aged care complaints investigation scheme by Professor Merilyn Walton of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine are yet to be made public.
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My my what a jaded lot some of you are. There are other options other than suicide or bingo. The tides are changing and talk is happening all around you. Providing person centred care is what those of us out there who love our ageing population are fighting for. I have my own business as an Aged Care Consultant, finding that perfect place be it Retirement Village, Hostel or Nursing Home or looking for the best care you can get at home isnt easy whether you are gay or straight. Having run facilities I am aware of the discrimination forced on various people be they of a different culture, suffer dementia, have HIV etc. Nobody who comes out of the closet wants to be forced back in through lack tolerance or understanding, nobody should suffer the indignity of sensure for any reason. Education is the key, providing Gay/Lesbian facilities, Retirement Villages should be high on our ageing population agenda. There are Italian, Estonian, Lativian homes. There are Retirement Villages for car lovers, boat lovers etc etc.
An Aged Care Facility is only as good as the people you staff it with along with the respect & training you give them. Why are you all not fighting for this…I am and Im straight.
Paul Mitchell…you destroy any credibility you may have when you describe the democratically elected Rudd government as communist…..get real or get out of here!
whilst broadly agreeing with ‘saintfletcher’, I’m pos and still physically fit, mentally active and having fun at 63 – but have no intention of ageing in inadequate and discriminatory institutionalised care so plan to choose the suicide option instead.
Saint Fletcher makes a great point about surviving institutionalised homophobia (school) only to return to it at the other end of life (aged care).
But this issue is there for everyone in the community, gay, straight, whatever. Unfortunately gay people are easy targets in institutions, but so are people of different race, ethnicity, religion …
People discriminate, even gay people. Sad but true.
Avoiding being a target via euthanasia is only one way to cope.
There are many others, such as letting go and accepting the ageing process.
I agree with voluntary euthanasia – hopefully by the time the Baby Boomers have changed the face of aged care as we know it, government will provide legal assisted euthanasia. By then it might be the smartest economic-rationalist approach to the care issue.
“Life for Life’s Sake” will hopefully not be the model of aged care by then.
But these are issues to face when genuinely old and/or infirm, not in middle age, surely !
There is life beyond “youth culture” and all that. Even better, there are plenty of others living that life who don’t care if a 45 year old has a receding hairline or a paunch. Hey, join the club !
Let go of youth and embrace middle age ! You stand a chance of meeting someone with a sexy brain AND at least some of their youthful body-sexiness, albeit a bit softer and greyer than they once were.
But you are in the same stage, so forgive them for their wrinkles and forgive yourself for yours.
Think of all the spare time (and money) you’ll have not going to the gym. Take up gardening instead !
Just get real – it takes a bit of time, but don’t assume you’re alone in this process. All those muscle marys and scene queens are on their way to it as well, deep in denial. Steroids and simple mechanical-overworking of their bodies will see them fade long before you blossom into a beautiful embodiment of who you are beyond the surface.
At least try it before taking those pills at 55 !!!!!
Hey, Gay Activist Paul Mitchell: Communist Rudd government? If only. Bingo? Give me a break. Your sense of humour escapes me Paul.
I would rather die than be in this situation. I never thought I’d make it to the age I am, most of my friends are dead and I have no intentions at all being a senior gay man. Middle age is bad enough. I see the future and it is frightening.
Better to be dead than bed ridden and gay. I got the pills, it’s all planned in another 10 years. This is not attention seeking, sympathy seeking or any of that rot. This is common sense for insisting on quality of life, generation X style. And guys, gen Y, if you think for a moment gen X will get in the way of your taxes, forget it. I think many of us have seen so many deaths in our lives and we did it the tough work for you. I will not live over 55. I’m leaving and I’m happy to go. What a relief!
The Government neglects the needs of middle and senior aged gay men. The gay community neglects the needs of their own colleagues in a similar way. Many gay men still fetishise younger men and never plan on growing older. I have. The answer is, just don’t be here when the shit is all over the sheets, and no one gives a shit that you can’t clean the shit yourself, so you are in the shit, so you might as well be dead. So be it. The answer is to go while we still have dignity and let anyone one stand in our way of our polite exit. Don’t worry about our pensions, we wont be here.
Live well with quality lives while we still have it. Make the most of it. It doesn’t last and the Government and our NGO bureaucrats don’t care. Others will bully, belittle oppress and bash us as old people, just as they did when we were children in school.
Been there, done that, and I’m not going back. That’s when it’s time to see God.
Blessings
saintfletcher
and, of course, there is always the ubiquitous suicide option!
6 points that I will make to this:
* Number 1 – we have an ageing population, I know because I work in a nursing home.
* Number 2 – Dignity and respect is to be upholding when it comes to senior citizens.
* Number 3 – same sex couples when one or both of them are over 65 should be in a safe environment to live and enjoy there fun leisure activities (such a bingo for example) like every other senior citizen in a peaceful and respectful place – without any sort of bullying, intimidation, embarrassment or harassment.
* Number 4 – Carers, nurses and other staff who work for the aged must sign a legally-binding document that says or quotes –
* “You must respect, uphold and recognise an individual’s marital status, economic status, religion or political beliefs, sexual orientation, race, age, gender identity, etc”.
* Number 5 – The Communist Rudd Labor Government must make more funding arrangements or grants to carers, nursing homes, meals on wheels programs, etc.
* Number 6 – Legalise euthanasia (only if the individual is over the age of 80 and only with the full informed consent of the individual).
In community aged care (aged care in the home) some organisations have specially-trained carers and care programs for multicultural clients, DVA (“Department of Veteran’s Affairs”) clients, or dementia clients etc. etc.
LGBT-friendly training could be offered to carers who will encounter LGBT people in the community care sector.
It already happens a little, but from my experience it’s fragmented and ill-informed, particularly on HIV transmission risks for carers. At best it’s well-intentioned, but not yet capable of broadly delivering effective LGBT care. This is often because the organisation is Church-based.
Our lobby groups could look at increasing their scope by raising awareness in Community and Residential aged care.
Aged care has fast become big business – like the plethora of private Jewish or Catholic nursing homes, wise investors will surely reap the financial rewards by investing in private LGBT aged care in the very near future.
Aged care operators of any stripe apply to the government annually for funding. Now that there is LGBT equality embedded in Commonwealth Law, a LGBT owned/operated aged care programme (community and residential) could not be knocked-back on the basis of the client’s sexuality.
One day “straight” folk might come out in order to get into such a place !
I feel that we need to address the issue by investing in GLBT aged care and offering an alternative. I don’t think all gays and lesbians facing aged care want to be in a gay and lesbian nursing home but there will be those who DO want that choice and dont want to have to “come out” but instead, have options.
I agree that education will help to make transition easier but it needs continued momentum. There seems to be a general feeling that older gays and lesbians just somehow drop off the radar – not the case obviously. I think not only is this article great for promoting discussion around our particular needs for aged care, but also perhaps increasing levels of respect for those who have gone before us and need our help to live a comfortable, social life with the time they have left.
I agree, with HIV+ people in western nations living longer than many anticipated, aged care for LGBT people will eventually outshine all other community needs.
But there are always surprises … even some religious-based aged care organisations already support same sex relationships. Having worked in the industry I know many managers are waiting (very often trained) for chances to show that acceptance.
The organisation’s motivation for their acceptance is very often financial, but if it was me facing the issue personally I would not care about their reasons.
Courage is not less needed in old age, it’s needed more. Our life choices come rushing at us as we approach our last years, despite our sexuality. I would encourage older LGBT people and their loved ones to expect acceptance of their needs, and move past any discrimination they find. Where you can, take your “business” elsewhere (or threaten to) and you might find a shut door suddenly opens to you.
this is possibly the biggest gay social issue facing us.
It’s very common for law reform to occur without any sensitivity to people in the real world. Right now we are forcing a generation of LGBT people/couples to come out again in order to access their newly-legislated rights.
Every LGBT law reform of this nature that I can think of needed to have transitional periods and a load of training for those who are effectively the gatekeepers of these laws, but we got nothing.
Harvey Milk made “coming out” into a political act, but he didn’t live long enough (unfortunately) to change the world for senior LGBT people. We need to take care of our own by helping them with the transition wherever/whenever we can (like advocating with/for them), but this may only help those who are already out.
Remember, anyone LGBT over the age of around 45 has lived in a time when relationships between people of the same sex in Australia were illegal and/or widely discriminated against with the backing of laws. This had led many to keep their relationships secret despite all the law reform since the 1980’s.
A timely article on what is in store for all of us.
MY view on being gay at the moment (generalised) = Coming out to everyone (usually around 18-20yo), Living comfortably with yourself (20-27yo), settle down with partner/s (27 – 60+yo), retire… then go back in to the closet (nursing home)???. I want to die as a gay man with dignity, with my partner, with respect, not in the closet again!!!!!
Why is it that the government bodies will charge us for being a couple but not recognize it legally through the law by giving us equal rights??!! I can’t believe I voted for these narrow minded people! Respect our aged GLBTI community!!!
Nick, 34years old, Sydenham.