Experiences and Attitudes of the LGBTQ+ Community on Care/Nursing Homes

Recent research has found that older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people have a negative attitude toward long term care services. To build upon this, we conducted a systematic review analyzing current research into the LGBTQ+ communities' perspectives and experiences of care/nursing homes. Additionally, we sought to explore the attitudes of care/nursing home staff toward providing care for LGBTQ+ residents. To conduct this study, we used the databases Embase, Medline and Web of Science, which identified 19 articles for review. From this, we were able to draw several conclusions, including that LGBTQ+ participants were concerned that they would have to conceal their identity and experience abuse. Most staff had a positive attitude toward LGBTQ+ residents, but there were exceptions to this. Despite their positive attitude, staff often lacked awareness of LGBTQ+ issues. The results of this review suggest that care/nursing homes are not welcoming environments for sexual and gender minorities, and that staff require more training to support this community. We end with innovative suggestions to tackle these issues, such as designing coproduced services with the support of LGBTQ+ communities.