Aged care on agenda

Aged care and youth issues are in Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria’s sights for 2009 after an impressive year of reporting on the health and wellbeing of the GLBTI community.

GLHV director Associate Professor Anne Mitchell said it’s been a big year for the group, which is funded by the Department of Human Services as part of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on GLBTI health.

-œWe’ll certainly be looking at either ends of the life span next year, for more follow-up, Mitchell said.

-œ[We’ll] continue to provide policy blueprints in this area as it’s unlikely the government will follow it up as it’s not a target group for them.

The recent report, Coming Forward: The Underreporting of Heterosexist Violence and Same-Sex Partner Abuse in Victoria, has been hailed by community leaders as an important step in shining a light on an often unknown area of violence.

Outgoing Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon launched the report which revealed one in seven respondents live in fear of heterosexist violence or harassment, and 85 percent have experienced some form of abuse in their lifetimes -” 32 percent reporting heterosexist abuse (mainly verbal) on the street.

Earlier in the year Crystal Clear was launched, a report which looked at methamphetamine use in the gay community.

Mitchell said aged care work was still in the early stages, and GLHV would be working with the ALSO Foundation next year to foster discussion and form partnerships with aged care service providers for aged care training and consultation.

A poster scheme, developed two years ago, outlining the needs of GLBTI seniors was unsuccessful.
-œThey [aged care providers] were really hard to shift … It’s a difficult area in age care providers. People either don’t see it as an issue or don’t want to display the posters because they are contentious.

It’s not just the Victorian community sitting up and taking notice either -” a Canadian GLBTI health service in Ontario has reportedly just launched a website modelled on the GLHV site.

The team’s latest online research survey, Beyond Homophobia, is still running. This is a study for those working with same-sex attracted or transgender young people in Victoria. Those interested can go to: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/ssay/BeyondHomophobiaSurvey.html