LGBTQIA2S+ Health Equity
Our Goals
One focus of our Office of Community Health is to ensure LGBTQIA2S+ patients and community members feel seen, understood, and have their health care needs met by family medicine clinicians and researchers. We are advancing this goal by:
- Bringing LGBTQIA2S+ care best practices to health care and research teams
- Studying our own clinical practices with the support of LGBTQIA2S+ patient advisors
- Strengthening statewide collaborations between community, academic, and health care organizations to improve the health of communities
Building Connections
Through our data and environmental assessments, we’ve built close relationships and are expanding our connections statewide as we work together to develop an LGBTQIA2S+ Health Equity Coalition.
Why It’s Important
Primary care providers are an early stop along the way in people’s gender and sexual health journeys; however, LGBT people are twice as likely likely to report having negative experiences with a health care provider. Additionally, LGBT people who experience regular discrimination are twice as likely to have mental health challenges.
“Almost half (47%) experienced at least one negative interaction with a health care provider. The most frequent negative interactions included health care providers using the wrong names or pronouns (37%), respondents having to teach their health care provider about trans people to receive appropriate care (18%), and health care providers asking unnecessary or invasive questions about the individual’s trans status that was unrelated to the visit (11%).” (Report, PDF)
Clinicians have a unique and important opportunity to be a supportive presence in LGBTQIA2S+ people’s lives. Alongside providers and educators, researchers can play a crucial role contributing to the health of LGBTQIA2S+ people through gathering data and stories in close partnership with community so we can better understand our community’s health care experiences, health inequities, and needs.
The more we can build affirming spaces and expand the use of LGBTQIA2S+ health care best practices, the more we can support LGBTQIA2S+ people’s well-being.
What We’ve Done
- Gathered the most recent data and information from key informants to determine where LGBTQIA2S+ communities in Wisconsin need the most support.
- Established a statewide coalition of organizations, researchers, and community leaders to advance LGBTQIA2S+ health. Our 2022 outreach to partners identified a key gap: organizations focused on LGBTQIA2S+ health didn’t have coordinated systems to share resources and collaborate. With the Center for Patient Partnerships, we convened partners and established a community-centered leadership team and working groups focusing on advocacy, youth, community building, and networking.
- Launched an LGBTQIA2S+ Project ECHO that provides continuing education and training to health care providers on LGBTQIA2S+ health.
- Provided LGBTQIA2S+ health care provider education by supporting residents in the LGBTQ+ health fellowship and collaborating with family medicine clinics to coordinate community presentations for faculty, residents, and other staff.
What’s Next?
We will continue to support health care provider education through ECHO and a readiness assessment of department health care providers and residents while continuing to build the statewide coalition. These efforts will inform further work on curriculum updates, the LGBTQ+ medical fellowship, ECHO sessions, funding searches, and more while focusing on creating better LGBTQIA2S+ health outcomes through greater alignment and partnership.