Speaker(s):
Presentation: In the 2000 U. S. Census, 33 percent of female same-sex couple households and 22 percent of male same-sex couple households reported at least one child under the age of 18 living in the home. These numbers have only continued to grow as more and more members of the LGBT community are building families, both as single adults or as couples. This session will explore providing culturally competent care to these families and address issues such as language, paperwork, access to care, discrimination, and existing disparities. Health providers should be familiar with the strengths and challenges experienced by these families and how state and federal policies can affect the health of LGBT families. In this session, Ryan Barker, will share his own story of raising a foster/adoptive child with his husband and how his own experiences translate to providing culturally competent care to the diversity of LGBT families throughout Missouri.
Objectives:
- Describe the diversity of LGBT families and the unique challenges experienced by these families within the health system, especially the mental health system
- Discuss how state and federal policies impact the health and security of LGBT families
- Provide tangible actions that can be taken to provide culturally competent care to LGBT families