55+ Transgender Individuals Needed!

[smietanski]

Please help us measure homophobia in health care, and offer suggestions for improving care to the LGBT community.

A study is being conducted by a graduate student in the DePaul University Nursing Department to investigate the occurrence of homophobia in health care settings, and its impact to health and health-seeking behaviors in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals 55 years of age and older. We would also like to receive your input on how to improve health care service provision to the older LGBT community.

Please fill out a short 3-5 minute anonymous survey that you can access using the link below.

Link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/homophobia

Approved by the DePaul Institutional Review Board On 5/13/11. See below for further information about this research study.


INFORMATION SHEET FOR PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH STUDY

Homophobic Interactions in Health Care: Impacts to Health
and Health-Seeking Behaviors in Older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals

You are being asked to participate in a research study being conducted by graduate nursing student Blake Smietanski. The study is supervised by Dr. Paula Kagan, and Dr. Karyn Holm at DePaul University. We are trying to learn more about your experiences with homophobia in a health care setting, and if homophobia has impacted your health and health-seeking behaviors. We would also like to receive your input on how to improve health care provision to the over 55 year old lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.  This study will take about 3-5 minutes of your time.  If you agree to be in this study, you will be asked to fill out an anonymous 11 question survey.  The survey will include questions about your age, sexual identity, number of times you've experienced homophobia in a health care setting, sources of homophobia, and how homophobia has impacted your health and health-seeking behaviors. You can choose not to participate.  There will be no negative consequences if you decide not to participate.

If you have questions about this study, please contact Blake Smietanski (Phone: 773.494.0948; email: smietanski@aol.com) or Dr. Paula Kagan (Phone: 773.325.7630; email: pkagan@depaul.edu).  If you have questions about your rights as a research subject, you may contact Susan Loess-Perez, DePaul University's Director of Research Protections at 312-362-7593 or by email at sloesspe@depaul.edu.


You may keep this information for your records.

[Julie Marie]

I'm not sure why they made this 55 and over.  Maybe it has something to do with many nursing homes not being very LGBT friendly.  But certainly when it comes to healthcare, the same people who will discriminate against someone 55+ will do so against someone younger too.

[smietanski]

The reason I chose 55+ is that historically this has been an understudied population in the LGBT community. Hopefully homophobia is becoming less prevalent in healthcare as society advances, but I am particularly interested in learning about the experiences of older LGBT individuals in relation to healthcare provision. Responses so far have been very thoughtful and illuminating.

[smietanski]

Sarah7: Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately the wording in the survey has been approved and will remain the same, but I will definitely use your comments in the discussion portion of my final research paper. I chose the commonly used groups of LGBT based on previous studies, and a fairly extensive literature review, but your comments definitely open up the discussion in regards to how those terms are used.

Concerning a definition of homophobia: my definition of homophobia may be different from others and that's how we intended it. Each person will answer the survey based on their understanding which is honest and true to themselves. I hadn't thought about the differentiation between homophobia and transphobia, but again will use that to help critique my study. We're somewhat limited in the scope of our research, and we have to pick and choose based on those limitations. So I've tried to create a survey that answers my research questions, but also is realistic based on time constraints.

And international folks are more than welcome to answer the survey. Definitely a global issue, and will be curious to see the incidence of homophobia in the healthcare setting. I'm hoping to publish eventually in an internationally distributed journal...I'm going to try for JAN: Journal of Advanced Nursing which is extensively read throughout the world.

Again, thanks for taking the time to offer up this valuable feedback. Life is a constant learning process, and I'm open to any and all comments.

Regards,
Blake

[Devlyn]

Just curious, did you check with the site owner before posting this? It seems someone comes here once a month looking to "research" us. Like we're a cageful of lab rats or something. I'm only 49, so I didn't take the survey by the way.

[smietanski]

Tracey: Yes, I registered with the site and have followed posting guidelines. It is certainly not our intention to make anyone feel like a "lab rat". Our intention is to learn about experiences of individuals within the LGBT community from their perspective in order that we can facilitate change in provision of care to those affected. Our survey is anonymous and voluntary with no repercussions from not participating, but we hope that others will offer up personal experience so we may better understand existing problems and potential solutions to discrimination, especially to populations that have a long history of differential treatment such as LGBTs.

Personally, I believe that being asked to complete many surveys is a positive sign that there are people out there that care and are trying to create a better, more accepting society. Thanks for your response and hope we haven't caused you undue stress from our research.

Sincerely,
Blake

[Devlyn]

No stress here, it's just odd that so many people show up here waving a clipboard. The others indicate your study is a bit "off" so I got to wondering. Good luck with your research. Tracey

[Julie Marie]

Blake,
As someone who is 55+ and also a resident of Illinois, as well as someone who has experienced a dramatic change in how my health care provider treats me, I have to say the biggest problem we have in Illinois is with enforcing anti-discrimination laws.  Pretty much, when it comes to trans people, they aren't enforced, at all.

It doesn't matter if it's health care or employment, the state and its agencies that were created to protect us from discrimination do nothing to stop the discrimination.  Of course, if a case got positive media coverage then our politicians would gladly step into the spotlight and save the day.  But so far I haven't seen that happen.

And if you are discriminated against by your health care provider or your employer you can go to the Illinois Department of Human Rights for help.  Sure!  Take a look at the findings they have posted on their site and see how long it takes you to find a case where they ruled in favor of the complainant.  Then see if you can find any pro-complainant rulings for LGBT people.  I've spent hours and couldn't find one.

The next step is hiring an attorney, if you can afford it.  Health care providers and employers can.  And they know if they drag it out long enough they can break you.

Not to discourage you but I think whatever results you find will fall on deaf ears.  Trans people are few and for the most part are not politically vocal.  Certainly less so than LG folks. 

Also, I'm not sure if you are aware of this but the National Center for Transgender Equality recently completed a survey and published a 200+ page report.  I've heard claims it is having an impact but I'm sure it will take time to see any results. 

The only real answer is exposing the fact the laws aren't enforced and that the state is only giving lip service.  But for that to have any effect, politicians have to feel their job could be in jeopardy if they don't change the way things are done.  With the way things are going, I don't see that happening any time soon.

If you want to discuss this further, let me know and we can email or talk.

Julie

[smietanski]

Julie Marie: Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. The information you've provided will definitely be included in my research findings/conclusions as well as help shape suggestions for further research.

Another student at DePaul conducted research on transgender individuals and referenced the report you mentioned here. I certainly hope that it stimulates discussion and potentially some real changes, but I agree with you that the change is difficult and small studies like this may not have big impacts, but hopefully, the little ones add up to change down the road. It seems to me that our society as a whole has come a long way compared to 50-60 years ago, but we have a very long way to go indeed.

Again, thank you for taking the time to put forth your thoughtful response, and if it's OK, I may contact you once my survey is complete (in a month or so), to help gain some further perspective.

Regards,
Blake

[Julie Marie]

It's impossible to do a simple survey on transgender (used as an umbrella term).  There are so many sub categories and there's a lot of controversy about how each category is defined.  And then there are those who don't want the TG label (understandable) and identify themselves as simply male or female, based on their gender identity, not their birth gender.

Hey Blake!  If you're listening, that would be a subject to study!  But trying to pin down any set of definitions that most all agree on would, from my experience, be extremely difficult.

[smietanski]

Definitely still listening Julie Marie. The wonderful thing is...anyone can carry out a research project. Our specific scope is within the nursing realm, but it is being conducted without any funding, so I think it's realistic that anyone could propose research and conduct surveys of their own. It takes a lot of time and effort, and even though this study was developed over 4 months with the assistance of senior faculty, there have been many constructive comments on areas that we didn't consider.

Again, it comes down to being realistic about the length of a survey, and also the specific research questions posed. Ours is trying to gain more insight into current experiences of homophobia within the LGBT community. Using the LGBT term though has resulted in some issues in how each person defines themselves, but like you say, there could be so many categories that aren't necessarily agreed upon, that at some point a researcher has to make a decision on what to use.

This has been a great discussion. I'm happy to see so much interest in the topic, and all of the posts here have offered much insight into conducting surveys.

Thanks to everyone!
Blake

[tekla]

I would think you'd have a hard time getting anything published that was based on a self-selecting sample based on a self-defining terminology.

[Joelene9]

  At least this survey is a start.
  Joelene

[gennee]

Here in New York, St. Vincent's Hospital, which was actively inolved in the LGBT community and trained its personnel  on how to treat transgender people closed in April 2010. It's been a big blow to the whole community. I agree with Julie Marie that anti-discrimination laws are not enforced. There have been beatings and some deaths of transgender people here in New York City.

I'm over 55 and quality heatlth care is a concern to me.  Forget the politicians because many of them profit from all the hospital closings.



Gennee